Disinformation as process: modeling the lifecycle of deceit

Abstract This article offers a new conceptual model of disinformation which accounts for the performative status of disinformation accusations, and the dialogistic interaction between accusers and accused, within a multi-aspectual dynamic process involving diverse actors (including those disassociated from various forms of deceit). The model shows how claims acquire or lose their disinformation status, as they transgress temporal, geopolitical, and linguacultural boundaries, those of media genre and platform, as well as, crucially, the boundary separating primary (disinformation) from secondary (counter-disinformation) discourses. We call our model “the lifecycle of disinformation,” as it captures both disinformation’s linear trajectories, and its capacity for constant self-renewal. While eschewing relativism, the article challenges the understanding of disinformation as referentially stable, demonstrably false content which still frames much disinformation research and underpins the working principles of counter-disinformation units (CDUs). To reconceive disinformation according to this model, we develop a 5-step analytical apparatus applicable in future research.