Disinformation: Digital Sociology’s Challenges in the Studies of the Technomediatic Public Sphere

Among Digital Sociology’s theoretical and conceptual challenges are those connected to the field of studies on the new public sphere created by the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs). This papers discusses the possible dialogues between digital sociology and political communication aiming to address what already configures a technomediatic public sphere. Most of the analytical frames available deal only with the digital and technological aspects of this new public sphere or with its informational and communicational characteristics. The presentation proposes to discuss the necessity of articulating these frames, their main theories, and concepts. Therefore, it presents and analyzes few of the most central theories and concepts in each of them and how they can be associated. Among these concepts, it discusses mass autocommunication and that of horizontal exchanges through digital platforms as well the concepts of public sphere, and public opinion as well those of information, and propaganda. The objective is to contribute to the development of a more solid analytical frame able to be used on studies on the new informational battles that most of literature addresses as disinformation. This new analytical frame would be more properly sociological for comprehending disinformation not as a thing in itself, but as a strategy in the political disputes in which ICTs play a more central role and challenge the old mass-media ecosystem and its gatekeepers.