5th ISA Forum of Sociology (6-11 July 2025)

In today's rapidly changing media environment, various political, economic, and cultural turbulences are experienced. The spread of disinformation and misinformation, known as the infodemic, is one of the factors that cause such turbulences. The cynicism towards information in the public sphere erodes the foundations of democracy. The circumstances call for a socio-theoretical approach to politics, the public sphere, and journalism in order to articulate the complex interrelation between those societal domains. The continuous changes in the social media industry have diversified the societal communication process and increased the difficulty in exploring the jungle of conversations on social media for researchers. Therefore, we have to make efforts to update our research methodologies constantly. In this session, we will illustrate the current problems from the perspective of sociocybernetics, including second-order cybernetics and systems theories, and also discuss new research attempts. Against this background, this session will welcome theoretical and empirical studies tackling research issues related to the changing media environment and information circulation in today's society.