Sten Hansson
LightNews LightNews
banner
stenhansson.bsky.social
Sten Hansson
@stenhansson.bsky.social
4.4K followers 440 following 140 posts
Associate Professor @UniTartu interested in #government #communication #blameavoidance #disasters #disinformation #discoursestudies

https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?hl=en&user=AmIeTJYAAAAJ
Posts Replies Media Videos
stenhansson.bsky.social
Morality in Discourse (2025)

global.oup.com/academic/pro...
Morality in Discourse Edited by Michael Haugh and Rosina Márquez-Reiter Oxford Studies in Sociolinguistics Offers the first compilation of present-day discursive research on questions of morality Fosters dialogue between different discourse and social interaction traditions
November 22, 2025 at 11:30 AM
stenhansson.bsky.social
New article just out: a review of government social media communication literature + suggestions for future research

www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcomm...
Government Communication on Social Media: Research Foci, Domains, and Future Directions. By Sten Hansson & Nic DePaula. The aim of this review essay is to draw attention to the diversity of work done in the field of government social media communication research. It is a rapidly developing area of study that has been approached from multiple disciplinary perspectives and a variety of research traditions. We suggest that studies of government social media communication may be broadly classified based on two characteristics: (a) whether their focus is mainly on the senders, messages, media, audiences, or effects of communication; and (b) the domains of government policy and public administration that they address. We review existing literature along this classification and conclude by suggesting fruitful directions for future research.
September 23, 2025 at 4:16 PM
stenhansson.bsky.social
New article out now on how to reduce communication-related vulnerability of war refugees

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Communication-Related Vulnerability of War Refugees: The Case of Ukrainians Escaping Russia's Invasion. When war refugees arrive in a host country, they may find themselves in a vulnerable condition and struggle to cope in a foreign setting. This article presents a systematic approach to identifying important communication-related challenges that should be addressed by policymakers at the national level of the host country to reduce the vulnerability of refugees. Building upon the theoretical framework of “communication-related vulnerability to disasters,” a case study of Ukrainian refugees fleeing to Estonia to escape Russia's invasion in 2022 is used to map out the ways in which displaced individuals may become more vulnerable due to various individual, social-structural, and situational factors that impede access to, understanding of, or responding to risk and crisis information. The data from 15 semi-structured interviews with key crisis managers show how access to vital information may be disrupted by a digitized communication environment unfamiliar to the refugees and the authorities' lack of experience in dealing with mass immigration. It also reveals how barriers to understanding arise from limited language skills and exposure to disinformation, and how crisis managers cannot provide adequate support if they experience information overload and poor interagency cooperation.
September 16, 2025 at 3:04 PM
stenhansson.bsky.social
Qualitative Research Methods in #Argumentation Studies --coming soon, including a chapter on political discourse and argumentation co-authored by yours truly

www.routledge.com/Qualitative-...
Qualitative Research Methods in Argumentation Studies Edited By Corina Andone, Marianne Doury, Sara Greco, Kati Hannken-Illjes, Menno Reijven This book explores the core principles, related theories, and conventions of qualitative research methods within the field of argumentation studies. In each chapter, contributors identify, contextualize, and offer solutions to various issues that a qualitative researcher in argumentation is likely to encounter. In doing so, the book provides a set of guidelines, instruments, and recommendations that enable readers to effectively conduct research and analyze arguments. Furthermore, the book presents discussions of the ethics, validity, and reliability of qualitative research methods as well as the intersections between qualitative and quantitative approaches. Looking to the future, chapters explore what the field could learn from other disciplines and how research could better integrate alternative data sources.
August 12, 2025 at 5:24 PM
stenhansson.bsky.social
New article out now! We propose a scenario-based system for disaster planning and response www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Social vulnerability triage: a dynamic scenario-based system for disaster planning and response. By Kati Orru , Sten Hansson and Kristi Nero. Disaster response planners face a difficult task: not only do they need to foresee a multitude of complex future hazard scenarios, but they also make critical decisions concerning what kind of assistance should be provided to various vulnerable groups, how quickly, and in what order. To complement existing risk and vulnerability assessment methods, we developed a dynamic social vulnerability triage system that supports such evidence-based decision-making. The novel software solution can be used to first systematically map the intersecting sources of hazard in a real or future hazard scenario, including the direct impact of the hazardous event (e.g. flood, wildfire, terrorist attack), disruptions of vital services and support structures, and communication barriers that hamper accessing or understanding risk and crisis information. Subsequently, based on this mapping of the hazard situation, the system guides the user through identifying vulnerable groups and assessing the nature and urgency of the assistance they may need. The triage results support more effective disaster risk mitigation, preparedness, communication and response planning, and help to ensure more fair and efficient resource use in crisis response.
July 7, 2025 at 5:31 PM
stenhansson.bsky.social
Discourses of political blame games

www.sciencedirect.com/special-issu...
Modern politics is permeated by blame games – symbolic struggles over the blameworthiness or otherwise of various social actors. This special issue is the first of its kind to provide a state-of-the-art overview of a range of linguistic approaches to the study of political blame games and cover a variety of mediated contexts in which blaming and blame avoidance occur.
May 20, 2025 at 2:27 PM
stenhansson.bsky.social
New article out now! We propose a framework for studying how changes in political leadership affect the language of government communication journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
Social media communication of government agencies should ideally be truthful and impartial to sustain public trust in government and support democratic goals. However, the politicization of agencies may harm the benefits that impartial and engaged communication brings. In this study, we provide a linguistic framework for analyzing how agency politicization is reflected in the language of government social media communication by asking: How does the agency (1) use speech acts (e.g., commands, requests), (2) talk about itself and others, (3) refer to statistical and scientific information, and (4) express positive and negative sentiment? We demonstrate the application of the framework by conducting a case study of the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s messaging on Twitter across administrations with distinct ideological alignments between the agency and its top administrator. The analysis shows that (1) requests and statistical information were used substantially more under the administrator more aligned with the agency mission; (2) expressive speech acts were used more often during the administration less aligned with the agency mission; and (3) posts were generally positive but more so under the administration less aligned with the agency mission, possibly to counteract increased public criticism. We discuss the results in relation to theories of politicization and government communication, and the implications for citizens and public sector communicators using social media sites.
May 7, 2025 at 9:47 AM
stenhansson.bsky.social
In this new article, we explore how table-top exercises can be used as part of vulnerability assessment to systematically identify a range of barriers to disaster communication that may put people at risk www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
During emergencies, people may become more vulnerable due to difficulties with accessing and understanding crisis information and may react inadequately to hazards due to being exposed to false information. In this article, we explore how table-top exercises can be used as part of vulnerability assessment to systematically identify a range of barriers to disaster communication that may put people at risk. We conducted a table-top exercise with disaster risk management practitioners, using a complex crisis scenario that included hazards arising from severe weather, disruptions of vital services, and the diffusion of harmful false information about the crisis. The participants were provided with specialised questionnaires, assessment tables that structured and facilitated the process of identifying vulnerable groups and the causes of their vulnerability throughout the exercise. The results suggest that the proposed table-top exercise format helps to foresee potential barriers to accessing crisis information and uncover capacity gaps within the authorities responsible for communication management during a disaster.
February 14, 2025 at 2:52 PM
stenhansson.bsky.social
Discourses of Political Blame Games -- special issue of @dcmjournal.bsky.social

www.sciencedirect.com/special-issu...
Discourses of Political Blame Games. Modern politics is permeated by blame games – symbolic struggles over the blameworthiness or otherwise of various social actors. This special issue is the first of its kind to provide a state-of-the-art overview of a range of linguistic approaches to the study of political blame games and cover a variety of mediated contexts in which blaming and blame avoidance occur. Guest Editors: Sten Hansson, University of Tartu, Estonia Ruth Page, University of Birmingham, UK
January 16, 2025 at 11:56 AM
stenhansson.bsky.social
The Politics and Governance of Blame -- introductory chapter free to read until 31 October here academic.oup.com/book/57606/c...
The Politics and Governance of Blame -- introductory chapter free to read until 31 October here https://academic.oup.com/book/57606/chapter/469210123 Oxford University Press #blameavoidance
October 24, 2024 at 4:30 PM
stenhansson.bsky.social
The Politics and Governance of Blame
global.oup.com/academic/pro...
September 11, 2024 at 3:05 PM
stenhansson.bsky.social
🏛️📣 New chapter on political blame games and critical language awareness is out now in this impressive academic volume published by Oxford University Press

books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&...
The Politics and Governance of Blame Edited by Prof Matthew Flinders, Dr Gergana Dimova, Dr Markus Hinterleitner, Prof R. A. W. Rhodes, and Prof R. Kent Weaver Blame avoidance and critical language awareness: An approach from critical discourse studies. To hold on to power, officeholders may try to use language in ways that would impair the public understanding of harmful events and their causes, and derail debates over blame issues. It is therefore necessary to develop an approach to governmental blame avoidance that focuses on critical language awareness-citizens' improved understanding of social and political functions of language with a special consideration of how various discursive strategies of persuasion are used within struggles for power. This chapter presents a conceptual framework that integrates the contemporary methods of critical discourse studies-an important source of critical language awareness-with current knowledge of administrative blame avoidance.
September 9, 2024 at 1:39 PM
stenhansson.bsky.social
🏛️📣 New special issue "Discourses of political blame games" is out now in @dcmjournal.bsky.social

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
July 18, 2024 at 12:59 PM
stenhansson.bsky.social
🏛️📣 New article out now: Coercive impoliteness and blame avoidance in government communication www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... @dcmjournal.bsky.social
As government officeholders face criticism for misconduct or policy failures, they are tempted to communicate in self-defensive ways. In this paper, I draw attention to how strategic blame avoidance in government may involve coercive impoliteness, that is, the use of expressions that attack the face of (potential) critics with an aim of forcing them to withhold their (future) criticism. Taking a discourse-historical approach to political rhetoric, I present illustrative examples of institutional government messaging from the United States, the United Kingdom, Estonia, and Russia to demonstrate how these face attacks may be accomplished in subtle ways, such as via sarcasm or mock politeness. I discuss the ethical implications of the uses of coercive impoliteness in government communication for democratic debates over public policy issues. The paper contributes to the study of political blame games, language aggression, and incivility in (digitally) mediated contexts.
April 2, 2024 at 10:08 AM
stenhansson.bsky.social
Ruth Wodak's new chapter on discourse studies in Research Handbook on Populism

books.google.co.uk/books?id=rTf...
March 19, 2024 at 8:03 AM
stenhansson.bsky.social
New article out now on how commanding and thanking in government social media communication elicit blame
🏛️📣 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
During major crises, such as the Covid-19 pandemic, government officeholders issue commands to change people’s behaviour (e.g., ‘Stay at home!’) and express thanks to acknowledge the efforts of others and build solidarity. We use specialised datasets of replies to social media posts by government ministers in the United Kingdom during Covid-19 lockdowns to explore how people react to their messages that contain directive speech acts and thanking. Empirically, our corpus-assisted analysis of evaluative language and blaming shows that far from promoting team spirit, thanking may elicit at least as much, if not more blaming language than commands. Methodologically, we demonstrate how to analyse government social media communication dialogically to gain more nuanced insights about online feedback from citizens.
February 28, 2024 at 12:29 PM
stenhansson.bsky.social
New article on how disaster managers use social media to mitigate people's vulnerability to hazards onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
In this article, we provide an overview of the ways in which disaster managers in eight European countries use social media to mitigate people's vulnerability to hazards. Our document analysis and 95 expert interviews in Germany, Italy, Belgium, Sweden, Hungary, Finland, Norway, and Estonia revealed six distinct institutional social media practices that may reduce disaster vulnerability: sharing educational guidelines, informing and warning the public, identifying citizens' concerns, identifying missing persons, sharing guidelines during disaster, and organizing volunteers. We discuss how these practices could affect people's ability to access, understand, and react adequately to information about risks and hazards. Our findings can be used to improve guidelines for official crisis communication on social media and demonstrate the value of using social media in disaster risk reduction.
January 3, 2024 at 12:04 PM
stenhansson.bsky.social
COVID-19 information disorder: Six types of harmful information during the pandemic in Europe

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
The outbreak of a novel coronavirus disease COVID-19 propelled the creation, transmission, and consumption of false information – unverified claims, misleading statements, false rumours, conspiracy theories, and so on – all around the world. When various official or unofficial sources issue erroneous, misleading or contradicting information during a crisis, people who are exposed to this may behave in ways that cause harm to the health and well-being of themselves or others, e.g., by not taking appropriate risk reducing measures or blaming or harassing vulnerable groups. To work towards a typology of informational content that may increase people’s vulnerability in the context of the coronavirus pandemic, we explored 98 instances of potentially harmful information that spread in six European countries – France, Italy, Norway, Finland, Lithuania, and Estonia – between March and May 2020.
December 22, 2023 at 1:13 PM
stenhansson.bsky.social
New article out now: experimental study on blaming in political protest discourse journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

🏛️📣🗣💬🌐📟
This article introduces an original theoretical model for understanding how the linguistic framing of political protest messages influences how blame spreads in social media. Our model of blame retweetability posits that the way in which the basis and focus of blame are linguistically construed affects people’s perception of the strength of criticism in the message and its likelihood to be reposted. Two online experiments provide empirical support for the model. We find that attacks on a person’s character are perceived as more critical than blaming focused on the negative outcomes of their actions, and that negative judgements of social sanction have a greater impact than those of social esteem. The study also uncovers a “retweetability paradox”—in contrast to earlier studies, we find that blame messages that are perceived as more critical are not more likely to be reposted. #polisky #commsky #polcom
November 27, 2023 at 10:58 AM
stenhansson.bsky.social
Discursive strategies of blaming: The language of judgment and political protest online journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
Modern politics is permeated by blame games—symbolic struggles over the blameworthiness or otherwise of various social actors. In this article, we develop a framework for identifying different strategies of blaming that protesters use on social media to criticize and delegitimize governments and political leaders. We draw on the systemic functional linguistic theory of Appraisal to distinguish between blame attributions based on negative judgments of the target’s (1) capacity, such as references to their incompetence and policy failures; (2) veracity, questioning their truthfulness or honesty via references to deceitful character or dishonest acts and utterances; (3) propriety, questioning their moral standing by references to, for instance, corruption; and (4) tenacity, suggesting that the politicians are not dependable due to, for example, dithering.
September 22, 2023 at 2:28 PM