Words as a Weapon: Language and Disinformation at Science Night 2026

The last Friday of September, which fell on 25 September this year, was made lively with Science Night 2026. For the visitors, a varied programme was prepared by Research Team 1, in particular on a topic entitled Words as a Weapon: Language and Disinformation. In the opening lecture, Miroslav Kubát, head of the research team, introduced the basic principles underlying disinformation and provided an insight into the current Czech disinformation landscape. Drawing on the results of an analysis of extensive collections of news texts, he demonstrated how the linguistic characteristics of credible and manipulative messages may differ and how such differences can be identified using the methods of quantitative linguistics.

In the following lecture, Martin Mostýn employed examples from Czech and German texts to show the role played by evaluative expressions, emotionally charged vocabulary and metaphors in constructing a manipulative representation of climate change. However, the visitors were not merely observers; in a series of selected tasks, they had the opportunity to try for themselves how manipulative language can be identified and, conversely, what linguistic devices can be utilized to create messages designed to evoke a particular attitude in the recipient.

The joint part of the programme culminated in the Big Disinformation Quiz, compiled by Milan Pišl. In an entertaining format, visitors searched for answers to questions related to some of the most widespread disinformation narratives and conspiracy theories they may encounter on social media.

Subsequently, visitors could move on to individual stations dedicated to Czech, German, English and Spanish. Through interactive activities, they were able to take a closer look at the language of disinformation texts and try out some of the methods applied by the research team in their analysis.

In the course of the evening, the visitors could also see a collection of artworks called Ambia by Michal Místecký. Among other things, the graphics vividly depict authentic headlines from Czech anti-establishment websites, their linguistic creativity, and sequences of parts of speech characteristic of manipulative and credible texts. They also provide a visual representation of other interesting findings emerging from the quantitative research.

We would like to thank all the visitors for their interest, thought-provoking questions, inspiring conversations, and productive meetings.