Communication and New Media: Pragmatic Aspects and Ethical-Political Repercussions

Project Summary

Over the past thirty years, the philosophy of language – and pragmatics in particular – has seen the rise of two important research trends. The first, which we might call ‘Digital Pragmatics’, examines conversational dynamics in social networks and other online contexts. The second, which we might call ‘Political Pragmatics’, investigates manipulative language use and applies tools from pragmatics to illuminate issues of ethical, societal, and political concern. A similar combination can be found in contemporary epistemology and philosophy of science – areas in which there has been a surge of interest in (dis)information dissemination (infodemics) on the Internet, and of agent-based simulation studies to model criteria of political consensus and polarization. Lying at the crossroads of these research trends, the ‘Communication and New Media’ project aims to analyze manipulative language use in digital environments and to develop tools to counter it.

Events

‘Off- and On-line Counterspeech’ Workshop, 26 June 2024, University of Milan [link].

Publications

• Bianchi, C., Caponetto, L. (2025), Filosofia sociale del linguaggio, Roma-Bari: Laterza [preview available here].
• Caponetto, L., Cepollaro, B. (2023b), The Philosophy of Counterlanguage, in S. Ullmann & M. Tomalin (eds.), Counterspeech: Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Countering Dangerous Speech, London: Routledge, pp. 50-66 [available here].
• Caponetto, L., Cepollaro, B. (2023a), Bending as Counterspeech, Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, 26: 577-593 [available here].