Approaching manipulation in current​ discourses: A growing interdisciplinary research​ endeavour

Given the difficulty to ascertain the intentions of text producers (Maillat, 2013; Maillat and Oswald, 2009; Oswald, 2014), studying manipulative discourses presents challenges at different levels. Firstly, as a matter of definitions, manipulation and persuasion are often difficult to differentiate (but see de Saussure, 2005 and Sorlin, 2016 for some attempts). Secondly, at analytical and interpretative levels, establishing whether manipulation occurs often relies on speculative arguments on the part of the researcher.
This paper begins by looking at how the definition of manipulation has evolved in the fields of Pragmatics and Critical Discourse Studies, while discussing the key issue of intentionality and providing an overview of the analytical focuses of previous research on manipulative discourses.
The paper will then look at two extreme cases of manipulative discourses, fake news and conspiracy theories, highlighting key aspects that need to be taken into consideration when investigating manipulation more broadly.