Mari-Liis Madisson

My project investigates how disinformation is framed as a security threat in articles published in Estonian mainstream media, with the aim of advancing a semiotically informed understanding of securitization as a culturally and historically grounded process. As a NATO border state with a traumatic history of Soviet information control and a strong contemporary identity built around digital innovation, Estonia offers a particularly compelling case. The study draws on the Copenhagen school of security studies and semiotic analysis of e-threats to highlight the dominant rhetorical strategies, including the frequent use of war metaphors, affective amplification, and the personalization of threats. It also explores how references to Soviet propaganda and dystopian narratives from popular culture are mobilized to deepen the sense of urgency and legitimize extraordinary countermeasures. By critically examining these discursive patterns, the research sheds light on the broader dynamics of information securitization and reveals how the framing of threats can significantly influence collective perceptions of ontological (in)security, potentially reinforcing a persistent climate of distrust.

In addition to this research, I plan to use my time at Stanford to introduce the distinctiveness and potential of the cultural semiotic approach in the study of political communication. Developed under relatively peripheral conditions, cultural semiotics is well known among European humanities scholars, particularly in literary studies, but has received undeservedly limited attention in the broader global academic community. I aim to share my research that demonstrates the explanatory power of this approach in the fields of international relations and communication studies—particularly its applicability to the analysis of malign information-influence activities and meaning-making processes shaped by fear.

Mari-Liis Madisson is a cultural semiotician who works as a research fellow at the department of semiotics, University of Tartu. She is the principal investigator for the Baltic work package in the international research project Researching Europe, Digitalisation, and Conspiracy Theories (CHANSE-41). Her research lies at the intersection of critical security studies, cultural analysis, and strategic narrative theory. Focusing on the Baltic region, she explores how threats are discursively constructed under conditions of fear and uncertainty, and how collective meaning-making frameworks shape societal responses to hybrid challenges. Her work has been published in internationally recognised peer-reviewed journals, including Semiotica, Problems of Post-Communism, Media, War & Conflict, and European Security. She is the co-author of two monographs—Varjatud märgid ja salaühingud: vandenõuteooriate tähendusmaailm (Postimees, 2023) and Strategic Conspiracy Narratives: A Semiotic Approach (Routledge, 2021)—and co-editor of the forthcoming volume Through the Lens of Dread: Exploring the Meaning-Making of Fear in the Mediasphere (Tallinn University Press, 2025). Photo by Kerttu Kruusla.