05 The Circulation of in-formation. Conceptualizing and experimenting with medialities

Chair: Joschka Philipps, JRG "Politics of the Unknown"

The ways in which information circulates has emerged as a key concern of our Junior Research Group “Politics of the Unknown. Conspiracism and conflict.” Instead of focusing on the normatively charged concept of “conspiracy theories”, we increasingly concentrate on the more general issue of transformations (deviations, attenuations, amplifications, disappearances, etc.) that information can undergo during its course in a given social space or during a specific period. These transformations of information happen on various levels and through an arguably undertheorized multiplicity of media. Whether information is encapsulated in an image or a text, in a whisper or a bodily gesture, makes a difference and sheds light on the multiplicity of meaning-making practices that often escape our attention when focusing routinely on the written and spoken word. How to a) grasp this multiplicity of medialities conceptually in a framework for empirical research and how to b) experiment with it creatively and learn from its implications will be the two core concerns of this roundtable. Along these lines, Saïkou Sagnane and Joschka Philipps will present our first attempts at a framework for studying how information circulates through media. Building upon these foundations, albeit still shaky, Kingsley Jima will present insights from his research in Northwest Nigeria on televised news reports about the attacks of “unknown gunmen”—a piece of information that leaves as many things unsaid as it reveals. Finally, exploring non-textual medialities, photographer Aurélien Gillier will present his photographic images of our research in Conakry, Guinea and assess the understudied role of the imaginary in what we call the “politics of the unknown.” The collective goal is to shed light on the epistemological issues underlying research on “conspiracy theories” and shift the perspective from a normative concern towards a methodological one.