(Universitas Mercu Buana, Indonesia)(2) Achmad Jamil
(Universitas Mercu Buana, Indonesia)(3) * Rizki Briandana
(Universitas Mercu Buana, Indonesia)*corresponding author
AbstractThis study explores the epistemic and ethical disruptions of public communication in the post-truth era through the theoretical lens of Mikhail Bakhtin’s dialogism. In an age where emotions, ideological narratives, and algorithmic amplification dominate digital discourse, truth has become a contested and manipulable construct rather than a product of dialogic exchange. Using a qualitative-descriptive approach, this research analyzes various forms of public digital content, such as online news, political memes, and viral hashtags, through critical discourse analysis and Bakhtinian concepts of heteroglossia, polyphony, and answerability. The findings reveal three key phenomena: the abandonment of dialogically-constructed truth, the fragmentation of digital heteroglossia into polarizing ideological bubbles, and the erosion of dialogic ethics manifested in the collapse of answerability. These trends mark a shift from inclusive public dialogue toward monologic affirmation and symbolic confrontation.Despite these challenges, the study identifies dialogism’s normative and pedagogical potential for rebuilding ethical communication in fragmented societies. Dialogism-based critical media literacy encourages reflective listening, ideological awareness, and multi-voiced engagement, providing a transformative strategy to counter disinformation and reclaim democratic discourse. This research offers both theoretical and practical contributions by positioning dialogism not only as an analytical tool, but also as an ethical foundation for inclusive, reflexive, and responsible communication in the digital age.
KeywordsBakhtin’s Dialogism; Post-truth; Discourse Production; Philosophical Perspective
|
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.31763/ijcs.v7i2.2036 |
Article metrics10.31763/ijcs.v7i2.2036 Abstract views : 0 |
Cite |
References
[1] A. Durnová and D. Karell, “Emotions and the ‘truths’ of contentious politics: advances in research on emotions, knowledge and contemporary contentious politics,” Emotions and Society, vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 252–256, Nov. 2023, doi: 10.1332/26316897Y2023D000000004.
[2] C. L. E. Foster, “Truth as social practice in a digital era: iteration as persuasion,” AI Soc, vol. 38, no. 5, pp. 2009–2023, Oct. 2023, doi: 10.1007/s00146-021-01306-w.
[3] K. R. Harris, “Beyond Belief: On Disinformation and Manipulation,” Erkenntnis, vol. 90, no. 2, pp. 483–503, Feb. 2025, doi: 10.1007/s10670-023-00710-6.
[4] V. Bufacchi, “Truth, lies and tweets: A Consensus Theory of Post-Truth,” Philos Soc Crit, vol. 47, no. 3, pp. 347–361, Mar. 2021, doi: 10.1177/0191453719896382.
[5] B. Ghosh, “Politics of Manufacturing Consent in a Post-Truth Society,” J Dev Soc, vol. 38, no. 1, pp. 7–26, Mar. 2022, doi: 10.1177/0169796X211068451.
[6] A. Simpson and F. Dervin, “Forms of dialogism in the Council of Europe Reference Framework on Competences for Democratic Culture,” J Multiling Multicult Dev, vol. 41, no. 4, pp. 305–319, Apr. 2020, doi: 10.1080/01434632.2019.1618317.
[7] J. Friedman, “Post-Truth and the Epistemological Crisis,” Critical Review, vol. 35, no. 1–2, pp. 1–21, Apr. 2023, doi: 10.1080/08913811.2023.2221502.
[8] P. G.-C. Blitvich and P. Bou-Franch, “Introduction to Analyzing Digital Discourse: New Insights and Future Directions,” in Analyzing Digital Discourse New Insights and Future Directions, P. Bou-Franch and P. Garcés-Conejos Blitvich, Eds., Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2019, ch. 1. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-92663-6.
[9] M. Hannon, “The Politics of Post-Truth,” Critical Review, vol. 35, no. 1–2, pp. 40–62, Apr. 2023, doi: 10.1080/08913811.2023.2194109.
[10] A. Simpson, “Reconfiguring Intercultural Communication Education through the dialogical relationship of Istina (Truth) and Pravda (Truth in Justice),” Educational Philosophy and Theory, vol. 55, no. 4, pp. 456–467, Mar. 2023, doi: 10.1080/00131857.2022.2098109.
[11] S. Majumdar and S. Sarkar, “Re-defining Plurality of Autonomous, Unmerged Voices and Consciousnesses in Bakhtin’s Theory of the Novel,” Cult Psychol, vol. 29, no. 3, pp. 534–547, Sep. 2023, doi: 10.1177/1354067X221145902.
[12] J. Zhang and H. Yu, “Between interpretation and the subject: Revisiting Bakhtin’s theory of polyphony,” Semiotica, vol. 2021, no. 238, pp. 61–72, Jan. 2021, doi: 10.1515/sem-2019-0086.
[13] I. Day, “Bakhtin’s Dialogism and Language Interpretation,” in The Art of Translation in Light of Bakhtin’s Re-accentuation, S. Gratchev and M. Marinova, Eds., Bloomsbury Press, 2022, pp. 45–56.
[14] E. Weizman and Z. Livnat, “Dialogic meaning-making in political settings,” Pragmatics and Society, vol. 13, no. 5, pp. 731–746, Dec. 2022, doi: 10.1075/ps.21026.int.
[15] P. Törnberg and A. Törnberg, “Inside a White Power echo chamber: Why fringe digital spaces are polarizing politics,” New Media Soc, vol. 26, no. 8, pp. 4511–4533, Aug. 2024, doi: 10.1177/14614448221122915.
[16] J. Forestal, “Beyond Gatekeeping: Propaganda, Democracy, and the Organization of Digital Publics,” J Polit, vol. 83, no. 1, pp. 306–320, Jan. 2021, doi: 10.1086/709300.
[17] E. Matusov, A. Marjanovic-Shane, T. Kullenberg, and K. Curtis, “Dialogic analysis vs. discourse analysis of dialogic pedagogy: Social science research in the era of positivism and post-truth,” Dialogic Pedagogy: An International Online Journal, vol. 7, Mar. 2019, doi: 10.5195/dpj.2019.272.
[18] C. Noy, “Polemic polyphony,” Pragmatics and Society, vol. 13, no. 5, pp. 815–836, Dec. 2022, doi: 10.1075/ps.21023.noy.
[19] Y. H. Hendlin, “The Law of the Excluded Middle: Discourse as Casualty of the Post-Truth Extremist Response to the Coronavirus Pandemic,” Law, Culture and the Humanities, vol. 21, no. 1, pp. 79–104, Feb. 2025, doi: 10.1177/1743872121999737.
[20] U. Okulska, “Discourse approaches to the study of dialogue and culture(s),” Language and Dialogue, vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 169–196, Aug. 2022, doi: 10.1075/ld.00121.int.
[21] F. Santulli, “Exploring dialogism in discourse,” Language and Dialogue, vol. 15, no. 1, pp. 182–201, Feb. 2025, doi: 10.1075/ld.00192.san.
[22] S. B. Trasmundi and S. V. Steffensen, “Dialogical cognition,” Language Sciences, vol. 103, p. 101615, May 2024, doi: 10.1016/j.langsci.2024.101615.
[23] P. Macneill, “Response—A Critical Response to ‘Discourse Communities and the Discourse of Experience,’” J Bioeth Inq, vol. 19, no. 1, pp. 71–77, Mar. 2022, doi: 10.1007/s11673-021-10156-6.
[24] K. Valaskivi and D. G. Robertson, “Introduction: epistemic contestations in the hybrid media environment,” Popular Communication, vol. 20, no. 3, pp. 153–161, Jul. 2022, doi: 10.1080/15405702.2022.2057998.
[25] V. Džinovi?, “The Multiple Self: Between Sociality and Dominance,” J Constr Psychol, vol. 35, no. 1, pp. 199–217, Jan. 2022, doi: 10.1080/10720537.2020.1805063.
[26] K. Hirschkop, “Inference and indexicality, or how to solve Bakhtin’s problem with heteroglossia,” Language Sciences, vol. 97, p. 101544, May 2023, doi: 10.1016/j.langsci.2023.101544.
[27] K. Savski, “Polyphony and polarization in public discourses: hegemony and dissent in a Slovene policy debate,” Critical Discourse Studies, vol. 17, no. 4, pp. 377–393, Aug. 2020, doi: 10.1080/17405904.2019.1609537.
[28] M. Yarchi, C. Baden, and N. Kligler-Vilenchik, “Political Polarization on the Digital Sphere: A Cross-platform, Over-time Analysis of Interactional, Positional, and Affective Polarization on Social Media,” Polit Commun, vol. 38, no. 1–2, pp. 98–139, Mar. 2021, doi: 10.1080/10584609.2020.1785067.
[29] J. G. McClellan, “Organizational Culture, Discipline, and the Politics of Self: Transformation Through Responsive Conversation,” International Journal of Business Communication, vol. 58, no. 2, pp. 152–168, Apr. 2021, doi: 10.1177/2329488420927775.
[30] M. J. Hatch and S. Ehrlich, “The dialogic organization,” in The Transformative Power of Dialogue (Research in Public Policy Analysis and Management, vol. 12, N. C. Roberts, Ed., Leeds: Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 2002, ch. 5, pp. 107–131. doi: 10.1016/S0732-1317(02)12007-0.
[31] G. Bryda and A. P. Costa, “Qualitative Research in Digital Era: Innovations, Methodologies and Collaborations,” Soc Sci, vol. 12, no. 10, p. 570, Oct. 2023, doi: 10.3390/socsci12100570.
[32] J. Zajda, “Discourse Analysis as a Qualitative Methodology,” Educational Practice and Theory, vol. 42, no. 2, pp. 5–21, Dec. 2020, doi: 10.7459/ept/42.2.02.
[33] N. Fairclough, J. Mulderrig, and R. Wodak, “Critical Discourse Analysis,” in Discourse Studies: A Multidisciplinary Introduction, 1 Oliver’s Yard, 55 City Road, London EC1Y 1SP United Kingdom : SAGE Publications Ltd, 2011, pp. 357–378. doi: 10.4135/9781446289068.n17.
[34] M. B. Miles, A. M. Huberman, and J. Saldaña, Qualitative Data Analysis: A Methods Sourcebook, 3rd ed. Thousand Oaks, California: SAGE Publications, Inc., 2014.
[35] M. Lock, “Rethinking Public Opinion in the Digital Era: Towards a Post-representational Theory,” Deleuze and Guattari Studies, vol. 17, no. 3, pp. 350–375, Aug. 2023, doi: 10.3366/dlgs.2023.0522.
[36] K. L. McLoughlin and W. J. Brady, “Human-algorithm interactions help explain the spread of misinformation,” Curr Opin Psychol, vol. 56, p. 101770, Apr. 2024, doi: 10.1016/j.copsyc.2023.101770.
[37] X. Yao, “Metrolingualism in online linguistic landscapes,” Int J Multiling, vol. 20, no. 2, pp. 214–230, Apr. 2023, doi: 10.1080/14790718.2021.1887197.
[38] A. Ponzio, “Communication with the Other and Moral Answerability in Mikhail M. Bakhtin,” Russian Journal of Communication, vol. 1, no. 3, pp. 291–306, Jun. 2008, doi: 10.1080/19409419.2008.10756718.
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.
Copyright (c) 2025 Chair Amin, Achmad Jamil, Rizki Briandana
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
International Journal of Communication and Society
ISSN 2684-9267
Published by Association for Scientific Computing Electronics and Engineering (ASCEE)
W : http://pubs2.ascee.org/index.php/ijcs
E : dani@ascee.org
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.