Climate Denialism as a Discursive Dynamic: Truth (and Politics) Beyond Facts
Applying Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) methods to the online output of climate change contesters, this article examines how their discursive strategies are accommodated within counter-disinformation frameworks. Critiquing the reductive epistemology shaping such frameworks, it challenges the notion that, by endorsing “depoliticized understandings” based on unassailable scientific authority, they build democratic consensus from a factually validated decarbonization imperative. It argues that unless facts generated within the scientific paradigm are incorporated into an agonistic process within which their articulation with truth remains contingent, they cannot effectively combat climate contestation.
Hutchings, S. (2026). Climate Change Disinformation| Climate Denialism as a Discursive Dynamic: Truth (and Politics) Beyond Facts. International Journal of Communication, 20, 2583–2605. https://doi.org/10.65476/gq3wv186