Memefying deception and deceptive memefication: Multimodal deception on social media
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Marta Dynel
Abstract
While online deception has attracted a lot of attention in psychology and communication studies, not much has been written about the formal features of this phenomenon from the vantage point of linguistics or philosophy. Advocating the notion of multimodal deception, this chapter aims to address this gap and takes a pragmatic perspective on social media deception that provides humorous entertainment. The forms of overlap between humour and deception are presented as manifest in social media content. I also indicate several social media practices that are anchored in deception: trolling, scambaiting and some pranks. Next, I explore the impact of social media affordances on the workings of deception in public multi-party interactions. Most importantly, I focus on the acts of reposting and the - intentional or unwitting - repurposing of previously nondeceptive posts so that they may invite false beliefs in the receivers. This sheds new light on the fine distinctions between (purposeful) deception and (unintentional) misleading across social media contexts, as well as the epistemologically grey area. The chapter is illustrated with contemporary examples of Covid-19 mask memes.
Abstract
While online deception has attracted a lot of attention in psychology and communication studies, not much has been written about the formal features of this phenomenon from the vantage point of linguistics or philosophy. Advocating the notion of multimodal deception, this chapter aims to address this gap and takes a pragmatic perspective on social media deception that provides humorous entertainment. The forms of overlap between humour and deception are presented as manifest in social media content. I also indicate several social media practices that are anchored in deception: trolling, scambaiting and some pranks. Next, I explore the impact of social media affordances on the workings of deception in public multi-party interactions. Most importantly, I focus on the acts of reposting and the - intentional or unwitting - repurposing of previously nondeceptive posts so that they may invite false beliefs in the receivers. This sheds new light on the fine distinctions between (purposeful) deception and (unintentional) misleading across social media contexts, as well as the epistemologically grey area. The chapter is illustrated with contemporary examples of Covid-19 mask memes.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents VII
- Introduction: On lying and disleading 1
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I Lies and deception: The landscape of falsehood
- Lying, deception, and related concepts: A conceptual map for ethics 15
- The morality of deception 41
- Kant tell an a priori lie 65
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II Lying, deception, and speaker commitment: Empirical evidence
- Is lying morally different from misleading? An empirical investigation 89
- “I was only quoting”: Shifting viewpoint and speaker commitment 113
- Memefying deception and deceptive memefication: Multimodal deception on social media 139
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III Puffery, bluffery, bullshit: How to not quite lie
- Bald-faced bullshit and authoritarian political speech: Making sense of Johnson and Trump 165
- Practice to deceive: A natural history of the legal bluff 195
- Just saying, just kidding: Liability for accountability-avoiding speech in ordinary conversation, politics and law 227
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IV Crossing the perjury threshold: Deceit and falsehood in the courtroom
- Perjury cases and the linguist 261
- Trickery and deceit: How the pragmatics of interrogation leads innocent people to confess – and factfinders to believe their confessions 289
- The context of mistrust: Perjury ascriptions in the courtroom 309
- What counts as a lie in and out of the courtroom? The effect of discourse genre on lie judgments 353
- Lies, deception, and bullshit in law 381
- Index 409
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents VII
- Introduction: On lying and disleading 1
-
I Lies and deception: The landscape of falsehood
- Lying, deception, and related concepts: A conceptual map for ethics 15
- The morality of deception 41
- Kant tell an a priori lie 65
-
II Lying, deception, and speaker commitment: Empirical evidence
- Is lying morally different from misleading? An empirical investigation 89
- “I was only quoting”: Shifting viewpoint and speaker commitment 113
- Memefying deception and deceptive memefication: Multimodal deception on social media 139
-
III Puffery, bluffery, bullshit: How to not quite lie
- Bald-faced bullshit and authoritarian political speech: Making sense of Johnson and Trump 165
- Practice to deceive: A natural history of the legal bluff 195
- Just saying, just kidding: Liability for accountability-avoiding speech in ordinary conversation, politics and law 227
-
IV Crossing the perjury threshold: Deceit and falsehood in the courtroom
- Perjury cases and the linguist 261
- Trickery and deceit: How the pragmatics of interrogation leads innocent people to confess – and factfinders to believe their confessions 289
- The context of mistrust: Perjury ascriptions in the courtroom 309
- What counts as a lie in and out of the courtroom? The effect of discourse genre on lie judgments 353
- Lies, deception, and bullshit in law 381
- Index 409
