University of Bamberg | Department of Communication Studies | Bamberg, Germany (in cooperation with University of Applied Sciences Kufstein-Tyrol), 4. April - 6. April 2024 in Bamberg

Society appears to have entered a stage of perpetual crisis and growing dysfunctionality. The rapid succession of scandals may be a symptom of crises, while being their catalyst at the same time. Further, one can argue that crises accentuate social conflicts. Such conflicts are increasingly demarcated along ideological and partisan lines. In this regard, scandal can be a means of driving conflicts. Thus, as societies are divided on controversial political issues, we can observe how conspiracy theories become more salient in public discourse. While the interrelation between crisis, conflict, and scandal is well established, it appears relevant to ask what role scandals play in the proliferation of conspiracy narratives.

With respect to this broad diagnosis, the conference aims to analyze scandals in all their manifestations in regard to crises, conflicts, and conspiracies and discuss how this interrelation is relevant. The goal is to better understand and conceptualize possible impacts of these phenomena on public discourse and media practices from an interdisciplinary and critical scientific perspective.

Scandalogy provides a forum for scandal research from all subfields of communication studies, political communication, and related disciplines. The program of the 5. international conference of the Scandalogy research initiative offers conceptual, empirical, and methodological studies, reflecting on scandals, crises, conflicts and conspiracies as well as the role which media and/or communication plays therein. In this regard, the conference features both empirically and theoretically focused work from advanced scholars as well as graduate students or doctoral candidates.

For more information about the Scandalogy research initiative visit our website.