Andreas Ventsel and Mari-Liis Madisson participated in the Erasmus+ teacher exchange program at Bari Aldo Moro University from March 18 to April 3, 2025, where they delivered a lecture courses on political semiotics, strategic conspiracy narratives and strategic communication.
Andreas Ventsel participated conference “Populism, Conspiracy Theories and the War Against Ukraine” , September 25-27, 2024, Tallinn, organised by ERC project “populism and Conspiracy Theory” (lead by Micheal Butter) and made a speech ” The role of affect and history in Russia’s strategic conspiracy narratives in the context of the war in Ukraine”.
Andreas Ventsel is organizing a panel titled “Semiotics of Political and Strategic Communication: Unpacking Semiotic Processes, Conflict, and Security in Modern Society” at the 16th World Congress of the IASS-AIS “Signs and Realities” taking place from September 2 to 6, 2024, Warsaw, Poland
Contemporary communication primarily takes place through various media platforms, emphasizing the importance of identity and cultural memory in bringing socially significant topics to the agenda and shaping the audience’s interpretation paths on the events. Any order that creates a semiotic identity involves excluding some other possible meaningful arrangements and, therefore, power is potentially included in every social practice of signification. At the same time, the excluded semiotic elements function as a boundary of the semiotic system and as a reservoir for the emergence of new semiotic phenomena. This means that sign processes are not only tools for mediating already existing power relations, but they are themselves a source of both social conflicts and power relations. The question of types of signs that dominate in shaping certain power relations becomes especially important in today’s age of social media communication, which is performed at an increasingly fast pace. The emergence of political identities and communities on social media is dominated by affective reactions to current events – a tendency enabled by the prevalence of emotionally and visually oriented communication. This panel invites the presentation of papers on the issues of security, power, and semiosis.
Andreas Ventsel, Mari-Liis Madisson, Eleni Katsarou, Panagiota Samioti & Konstantinos Sipitanos gave a presentation “Enhancing Critical Digital Literacy: The S.H.I.E.L.D. vs Disinfo Project’s Toolkit Approach” in in International Council for Media Literacy Bridging Academia to Action, Azores islands, Portugal, 27-28.06.2024
Andreas Ventsel & Mari-Liis Madisson gave a presentation “Strengthening Media Literacy in the Military for Resilience Against Disinformation” in International Council for Media Literacy Bridging Academia to Action, Azores islands, Portugal, 27-28.06.2024
Sten Hansson, Andreas Ventsel & Mari-Liis Madisson gave a presentation “Discourses of Legitimation in Strategic Narratives: The Case of Russia’s War Against Ukraine” at the conference “74th Annual International Communication Association Conference,” Queensland, Australia, June 21, 2024
International influence activities are increasingly studied within the analytical framework of strategic narratives. The specific ways in which narratives may be exploited by governments to legitimise military aggression need more research.
We use a specialised dataset of English language social media content published by the Russian government during its attack on Ukraine in 2022 as a case study to demonstrate how to identify the multiple ways in which the aggressor tries to justify its illegal and unprovoked invasion. We make a methodological contribution by combining insights and analytical tools from strategic narrative approaches to international relations, linguistically informed research into discursive legitimation in politics, and a semiotic approach to analysing social media messages.
Our analysis reveals four types of legitimatory narratives of armed conflicts, and demonstrates how these are constructed via particular discursive strategies of legitimation. The findings also contribute to a more fine-grained understanding of Russia’s strategic communication.
Andreas Ventsel, Mari-Liis Madisson, and Sten Hansson are organizing a panel titled “Humanistic Perspective on Information Security and Information Influence” at the Estonian Humanists’ 1st Annual Conference “Future Humanities: How the Humanities Shape Society in an Era of Transformative Changes,” taking place from April 10 to 12, 2024, at Tallinn University.
The panel is expecting presentations that seek answers to the following questions: • How can the humanities contribute to a broader understanding of national defense, addressing security and public safety more diversely than solely through the military? • What are the methods of information influence prevalent in Estonia, and what stories (including historical narratives) and symbols are used in messages undermining Estonian values or promoting anti-democratic views? • How do ideological charges and conflicting meanings develop in the context of information influence? • How can the humanities help develop precise and sensitive terminology that enables an understanding of contemporary threats, including information influence, without excessively inducing fear?
Andreas Ventsel will participated in the Erasmus+ teacher exchange program at Bologna University from March 24 to April 8, 2024, where he will delivered a lecture course on political semiotics and strategic communication.
“The Semiotics of Political and Strategic Communication” Advanced Interactive Winter School, 29.01-02.02.2024. Narva, Estonia
The winter school is intended to explore from the perspective of political semiotics and international relations the role of strategic narratives and communication in the new geopolitical and security landscape in Eastern Europe shaped by Russia’s war against Ukraine that started on February 24, 2022. The school offers a series of interactive classes, lectures and panel discussions focusing on various components of strategic narratives as discursive and semiotic constructs.
The focal point of the school is new vocabularies, discourses and imaginaries of politics that have appeared after – and were produced by – the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The topics to be discussed include the repercussions of Russia’s aggression for new narratives and images of security and insecurity, the affective potential of discourses and their dislocations. The school program is designed to cover and problematize the ongoing political dynamics in Ukraine in conjunction with countries located at Europe’s eastern flank, including Estonia.
TENTATIVE TOPICS / CLUSTERS
Day 1: Semiotics Aspects of Strategic Narratives: Fake News, Conspiracy Theories, Manipulative Techniques of Misinformation
Day 2: Historical Narratives and Collective Memories
Day 3: Strategic Narratives and Human Bodies: How Biopolitics Transforms into Necropolitics
Day 4: Ukraine in the Limelight: What and How Can We Learn?
Day 5: “The Arts of Survival”: Estonian Cultural Narratives in Insecure Times
The school is part of the project “Relational Approaches to Strategic Historical Narratives” supported by the Estonian Research Council, and a project “Contested Heritage” supported by the CELSA consortium.
More information: https://filsem.ut.ee/en/content/call-applicants-oct-30-2023-semiotics-political-and-strategic-communication-advanced?fbclid=IwAR1osH86Q6XmQQmaRdNCzlUtbxfiacKy4uCZ7O_-eXPXOHiHX88iQc-QqqY
Mari-Liis Madisson and Andreas Ventsel gave a presentation “Understanding Conflicts in Strategic Conspiracy Narratives: A Semiotic Perspective” in Semiotics of Conflicts 2nd Joint Seminar in Semiotics of Tallinn University and the University of Bologna 29th September 2023, Tallinn University
Abstract. Employing Juri Lotman’s framework of culture/anticulture and culture/nonculture, Chantal Mouffe’s concepts of antagonism/agonism, and Umberto Eco’s approach of conflict as a topic, our presentation offers an exploration of strategic conspiracy narratives across marketing, alternative knowledge, and politics. We explore marketing narratives, focusing on their creation of engaging villainous figures and their fusion of brand identities with recognizable conspiracy codes. Within the domain of alternative knowledge, we underscore the heightened conflicts between mainstream bodies and alternative authorities, with a specific emphasis on the pivotal role of institutional manipulations. Within the sphere of political narratives, we bring to light an existential contest between the conspirators and those in the know, illustrating the construction of value systems through profound opposition. These arenas provide varied methods of conflict construction, each influencing how characters are depicted, the possibilities for conflict resolution, and the creation of an “us versus them” narrative framework. Our multi-faceted semiotic approach not only unveils the power dynamics inherent in these narratives but also illuminates the crucial role that the audience’s meaning-making practices play in the success of these strategic narratives.
Sten Hansson, Mari-Liis Madisson and Andreas Ventsel gave a speech “Discourses of legitimation in strategic narratives: The case of Russia’s war against Ukraine” in Seventh Annual Tartu Conference on East European and Eurasian Studies 11–13 June 2023, Tartu, Estonia.
Abstract. Russia’s international influence activities are increasingly studied within the analytical framework of strategic narratives. In this paper, we combine insights and analytical tools from strategic narrative approaches to international relations and linguistically informed research into discursive legitimation in politics to identify the multiple ways in which the Kremlin has tried to justify its war against Ukraine. We present an analysis of a specialised dataset of English language social media content published by the Russian government during its attack on Ukraine in 2022. Our analysis sheds new light on how legitimations of armed conflicts can be rather sophisticated (e.g., combining rhetorical appeals to authority, moral values, fear, etc.) and may serve multiple strategic goals at once. It also contributes to the scholarship on Russia’s strategic communication about NATO and the European Union.
Mari-Liis Madisson and Andreas Ventsel gave a speech “ Who’s Afraid of Conspiracy theories?” in 13th Annual Lotman Conference, „Fear in Culture and Culture of Fear“ taking place 15-17 June 2023 in Tallinn, Estonia.
Abstract. In the wake of COVID-crisis, energy crisis and security crisis we are witnessing an unprecedented proliferation of conspiracy theories on social media and instant messaging application. In addition to spreading conspiracy theories quickly and across geographical boundaries, social media makes it possible to grasp the popularity of any conspiracy theory of interest through likes, shares and comments. In relation with this, the professional media has devoted a lot of page space and airtime to conspiracy theories. Spurred on by media panic a myth has arisen, that suggests that contemporary netizens supposedly suffer from an unprecedentedly strong fear of conspiracies. Academic studies of conspiracy theories emphasize that the proliferation of conspiracy narratives does not necessarily mean an epidemic of belief in them. However, we occasionally meet concerned opinions that conspiracy theories have had the effect of a mass psychosis, dulling critical thought and alienating media consumers from logical, complex and proof-based explanations. Also, there is the worry of otherwise calm and reasonable people egging one another on so intensely on social media that they are prepared to attack the groups accused of conspiracies either online or even physically. This paper focuses on the key tropes of such myth and explicates which aspects contemporary conspiracy theories stay out of the radar of those popular media stories. We rely on the concept of phobophobia that enables to shed some light on the underlying cultural mechanisms of the (alleged) fear of conspiracy theories.
Mari-Liis Madisson and Andreas Ventsel will give a speech “Strategic smear of COVID-19 conspiracy theories: RT´s and Sputnik´s coronavirus representations “ in 10th European Workshops in International Studies, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 12-14 July 2023.
Abstract. The crucial component of contemporary conflicts is the audience. One possibility to govern information conflicts is to design strategic narratives that represent the past, present and future of conflicts (Miskimmon et. al 2017). Strategic narratives create a context that guides the meaning-making of the audience. The presentation focuses on the coverage of coronavirus-related stories published in spring 2020 (n=200) in Anglophone media outlets RT and Sputnik that are financed by the Russian government. Previous research has shown that those outlets spread strategic conspiracy narratives that support the foreign policy aims of the Kremlin. In analysis we rely on semiotic approach of strategic narratives (Madisson, Ventsel 2020) for explaining the techniques of creating the targeted audience. The analysis demonstrates a significant shift in the representation of conspiracies: instead of the depiction of malicious acts of secret grouping, RT and Sputnik narrate about alarming effects of conspiracy theories. Coronavirus-related conspiracy theories are represented as a means that the US is using in blame games against China and Russia, as well as a propaganda-tool for scaring the Western audience. We argue that this diametrically changed representation of conspiracy fulfills similar strategic functions as in previous times – sowing distrust against the Western state authorities and promoting Russia´s public images as a leader of global resistance to the decadent Western dominance.
Andreas Ventsel will give a plenary speech on political semiotics in 7th Nordic Interdisciplinary Conference on Discourse and Interaction (Nordisco) on the 15th-17th of November 2023, Tampere, Finland.
Abstract. This presentation delves into the realm of political semiotics, that Peeter Selg (professor of political theory in Tallinn University) and Andreas Ventsel introduced in our recent monograph “Introducing Relational Political Analysis: Political Semiotics as a Theory and Method” (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021). Drawing inspiration from Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory, Jakobson’s communication model, and various concepts from (cultural)semiotics and political analysis, Ventsel elucidate the significance of political semiotics in addressing the intricate challenges of governance termed as “wicked problems.” These problems stand apart from mere simple or complex issues, as well as those that have been de-problematized. Notably, efforts to tackle a wicked problem inherently transform its nature and give rise to new challenges. Hence, the tactics of problematization and de-problematization in problem-solving often become focal points for political struggle.
Daniel Tamm gave a speech titled “Politics embodied: modelling the discourse of the populist radical right” at the 13th conference of the Nordic Association for Semiotic Studies in Helsinki, Finland, 7–9 June 2023.
Abstract. One of the reasons why the populist radical right is difficult to study is because the content of their discourse varies greatly across different political and historical contexts. This presentation thus turns towards the framework of political semiotics, which emphasizes the form of political articulation: the ways in which worldviews are constituted and not just expressed in discourse. In order to develop this method of modelling political discourse further, the presentation also incorporates developments from the field of cognitive linguistic critical discourse studies. Most notably in regard to the notion of construed embodiment, the idea that the use of language is proceeded and guided by spatial cognition, which can be used to reconstruct the ideological position of the speaker. The presentation focuses on the Conservative People’s Party of Estonia’s treatment of the COVID-19 pandemic and its countermeasures in Estonia. Using the public discourse of party leaders as source material, the presentation illustrates how the party’s stance on the issue has changed considerably, but their construal of contrasting threats followed a similar model of highly embodied meaning-making.
More information: http://nordicsemiotics.org/?page_id=697