Call for Papers on a Special Issue on “The Disinformation Economy: Digital Markets of Influence, Conflict, and Polarization”

Written By Carlos Diaz Ruiz

Journal of Marketing Management Special Issue Call for Papers:

Deadline for submissions 15 September 2026

The Disinformation Economy: Digital Markets of Influence, Conflict, and Polarization

Guest Editors: Carlos Diaz Ruiz, Hanken School of Economics, Sofia Ulver, Lund University & James Pamment, Psychological Defense Research Institute, Lund University


The online information landscape is a site for contested ideas, but it is also a marketplace; under the platform economy, every engagement has monetary value. This setup encourages content creators to circulate the kinds of material most likely to capture attention, even if it is incendiary. Central to this business model are the algorithmic recommendation systems, which are designed to monetize attention while simultaneously amplifying disinformation (Diaz Ruiz, 2025b).

The term “Disinformation Economy” was introduced in a report published by the McCain Institute and The Carter Center (Scholtens et al., 2024). It highlights how the sources circulating disinformation extract financial benefits from digital marketing infrastructures, particularly through the architecture of advertising technologies (AdTech). Researchers estimate that 1.68% of digital advertising budgets are redirected to fake news websites, amounting to approximately US$2.4 billion in the US alone and nearly US$6 billion worldwide (Skibinski, 2023). This figure suggests that brands are inadvertently funding fake news and disinformation with their budgets (Elliott, 2022; Silverman et al., 2022).

The special issue aims to extend existing research on how platform architectures monetize and, at times, underwrite the spread of online disinformation (Recuero, 2025; Zimmerman, 2024), incentivizing the production of fake news websites (Braun & Eklund, 2019; Diaz Ruiz, 2024), and the circulation of incendiary content through the creator economy (Diaz Ruiz, 2025a). Although we know that polarization thrives in the online “conflict markets” designed to reward click maximization (Ulver, 2022), we do not know well whether influencers profiting from radicalizing content is a likely outcome of the system or a regrettable side effect (Marwick & Lewis, 2017; Radanielina Hita & Grégoire, 2023).

Policymakers increasingly recognize that malicious actors exploit digital advertising infrastructures to undermine democratic institutions and divide society (Bak et al., 2023), quickly becoming “hybrid threats,” which is when state or non-state actors seek to exploit the vulnerabilities of democracies to their own advantage while remaining below the threshold of formal warfare (European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats, 2023). For instance, the infrastructures of the advertising market allow “dark money” actors to run influence campaigns unchecked (Nadler et al., 2018). A recent report by the Swedish Psychological Defense Agency, based on leaked documents from a Russian influence campaign, illustrates the emergence of a hybrid organization that applies digital marketing tools to conduct state-sponsored influence operations (Pamment & Tsurtsumia, 2025). And yet, we do not know to what extent influence operations co-opt malpractice in digital marketing.

This special issue invites contributions that seek to conceptualize and theorize disinformation research at the intersection of business, marketing, and society. However, we believe that it is insufficient merely to appreciate the problem; instead, we call for research that dares to find solutions that can inform public policy, change managerial practice, and strengthen society. We welcome contributions that can enhance social resilience against the spread of disinformation online.

We approach disinformation broadly, in line with Bennett & Livingston’s (2023) “disinformation age,” incorporating not just falsehoods but also dual-use technologies (like AI-generated synthetic media like deepfakes), which can disrupt social realities.

Critical researchers on marketing and consumer research have, over the last decade, convincingly shown that the accelerating speed of automation, big data, and algorithmic intensification (Darmody & Zwick, 2020; Hoang et al., 2022; Zwick & Bradshaw, 2016)  give rise to new “manufactured consumers” (Zwick & Denegri Knott, 2009), becoming an ever more fragmented, yet controlable, societal formation of the ‘dividual’ (Cluley & Brown, 2015; Hietanen et al., 2022). Thus, we would need to know more about how disinformation, scams, and fraud have become integral to the ebbs and flows of a digitally mediated consumer culture.

Suggested topic areas

Multidisciplinary research contributions from across business disciplines, media studies, the social sciences, and public policy are welcome. We are particularly interested in research that addresses marketing technologies and practices in connection to disinformation. Other relevant research areas include understanding and countering deceptive online practices such as fake news, enhancing resilience through media literacy (Boler et al., 2025), fact-checking (Westlund et al., 2024), platform governance (Arsel, 2025), platform economies (Caliskan et al., 2025), and critical disinformation studies (Kuo & Marwick, 2021).

Below are some indicative themes that could be covered in submissions, though this list is not exhaustive:

  • Whether and how programmatic advertising funds fake news?

  • How do the recommender algorithms amplify incendiary content?

  • How can AI-generated content be used to spread disinformation?

  • Do the monetization schemes of the creator economy reward polarization?

  • How do influence operations exploit marketing infrastructures?

  • What initiatives and interventions can strengthen societal resilience to disinformation?

  • What forms of platform governance can protect liberal deliberative democracies?

  • What methodologies, including Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT), can be used to investigate disinformation on AdTech and social media?

Submission Requirements:

Authors should submit manuscripts of between 8,000–10,000 words (excluding tables, references, captions, footnotes and endnotes). All submissions must strictly follow the guidelines for the Journal of Marketing Management. These are available at: https://www.tandfonline.com/action/authorSubmission?show=instructions&journalCode=rjmm20 Submissions which do not follow these guidelines will be returned to authors for correction prior to being passed to the SI Editors.

Please note the requirements to include a Summary Statement of Contribution, and to place figures and tables at their correct location within the text. Please also read the following guidelines prior to submitting your manuscript:

Manuscripts should be submitted online using the T&F Submission Portal for Journal of Marketing Management (https://rp.tandfonline.com/submission/create?journalCode=RJMM). Authors should prepare and upload two versions of their manuscript (only use alpha-numeric characters or underscores in the filename). One should be a complete text, while in the second all document information identifying the author should be removed from the files to allow them to be sent anonymously to referees.

When uploading files authors will be able to define the non-anonymous version as “Manuscript – with author details”, and the anonymous version as “Manuscript – Anonymous”. To submit your manuscript to the Special Issue choose “Research Article” from the Manuscript Type list in the Submission Portal. On the next screen (Manuscript Details), answer ‘yes’ to the question ‘Are you submitting your paper for a specific special issue or article collection?’. A drop down menu will then appear and you should select the Special Issue Title from this list.

Informal queries regarding guest editors’ expectations or the suitability of specific research topics should be directed to the Special Issue Editors. Please send your questions to all guest editors in a single email.

Editor Contact Details

Key Dates

  • The online system will be open for submissions to this issue from 15 August 2026.

  • The closing date for submissions is 15 September 2026.

Technical queries about submissions can be referred to the Editorial Office: rjmmeditorial@westburn.co.uk

Read the original call for papers here https://www.jmmnews.com/disinformation-economy/

References

Arsel, Z. (2025). Platform capture: a review of the state of the art of research on platforms and a research agenda. Journal of Marketing Management, 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1080/0267257X.2025.2549741

Bak, P. de P., Walter, J. G., & Bechmann, A. (2023). Digital false information at scale in the European Union: Current state of research in various disciplines, and future directions. New Media & Society, 25(10), 2800–2819. https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448221122146

Bennett, W. L., & Livingston, S. (2023). A Brief History of the Disinformation Age: Information Wars and the Decline of Institutional Authority (pp. 43–73). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-45335-9_4

Boler, M., Gharib, H., Kweon, Y.-J., Trigiani, A., & Perry, B. (2025). Promoting Mis/Disinformation Literacy Among Adults: A Scoping Review of Interventions and Recommendations. Communication Research. https://doi.org/10.1177/00936502251318630

Braun, J. A., & Eklund, J. L. (2019). Fake News, Real Money: Ad Tech Platforms, Profit-Driven Hoaxes, and the Business of Journalism. Digital Journalism, 7(1), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2018.1556314

Caliskan, K., MacKenzie, D., & Callon, M. (2025). Stacked economization: a research program for the study of platforms. Journal of Cultural Economy, 18(2), 304–331. https://doi.org/10.1080/17530350.2024.2423687

Cluley, R., & Brown, S. D. (2015). The dividualised consumer: sketching the new mask of the consumer. Journal of Marketing Management, 31(1–2), 107–122. https://doi.org/10.1080/0267257X.2014.958518

Darmody, A., & Zwick, D. (2020). Manipulate to empower: Hyper-relevance and the contradictions of marketing in the age of surveillance capitalism. Big Data & Society, 7(1), 205395172090411. https://doi.org/10.1177/2053951720904112

Diaz Ruiz, C. (2024). Disinformation and fake news as externalities of digital advertising: a close reading of sociotechnical imaginaries in programmatic advertising. Journal of Marketing Management, 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1080/0267257X.2024.2421860

Diaz Ruiz, C. (2025a). Disinformation on digital media platforms: A market-shaping approach. New Media & Society, 27(4), 2188–2211. https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448231207644

Diaz Ruiz, C. (2025b). Market-Oriented Disinformation Research: Digital Advertising, Disinformation and Fake News on Social Media. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003506676

Elliott, V. (2022, June 23). Meta Made Millions in Ads from Networks of Fake Accounts. Wired. https://www.wired.com/story/meta-is-making-millions-from-fake-accounts/

European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats. (2023). Hybrid Threats: A Comprehensive resilience ecosystem.

Hietanen, J., Ahlberg, O., & Botez, A. (2022). The ‘dividual’ is semiocapitalist consumer culture. Journal of Marketing Management, 38(1–2), 165–181. https://doi.org/10.1080/0267257X.2022.2036519

Hoang, Q., Cronin, J., & Skandalis, A. (2022). High-fidelity consumption and the claustropolitan structure of feeling. Marketing Theory, 22(1), 85–104. https://doi.org/10.1177/14705931211062637

Kuo, R., & Marwick, A. (2021). Critical disinformation studies: History, power, and politics. Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review. https://doi.org/10.37016/mr-2020-76

Marwick, A. E., & Lewis, R. (2017). Media manipulation and disinformation online. https://datasociety.net/library/media-manipulation-and-disinfo-online/

Nadler, A., Crain, M., & Donovan, J. (2018). Weaponizing the Digital Influence Machine: The Political Perils of Online Ad Tech. In Data & Society. https://datasociety.net/library/weaponizing-the-digital-influence-machine/

Pamment, J., & Tsurtsumia, D. (2025). Beyond Operation Doppelgänger: A Capability Assessment of the Social Design Agency. In Psychological Defence Agency. https://mpf.se/psychological-defence-agency/publications/archive/2025-05-15-beyond-operation-doppelganger-a-capability-assessment-of-the-social-design-agency

Radanielina Hita, M. L., & Grégoire, Y. (2023). Marketing to Prevent Radicalization: A First Attempt at Delimiting the Field. Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, 42(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1177/07439156221136951

Recuero, R. (2025). A systemic framework for disinformation on social media platforms. Platforms & Society, 2. https://doi.org/10.1177/29768624251367199

Scholtens, M., Pizano, P., Karpawich, M., & Kuckes, G. (2024). The Disinformation Economy. Carter Center & McCain Institute. https://www.cartercenter.org/resources/pdfs/news/peace_publications/democracy/the-disinformation-economy-mccain-may-2024.pdf

Silverman, C., Talbot, R., Kao, J., & Klühspies, A. (2022, October 29). How Google’s Ad Business Funds Disinformation Around the World. ProPublica. https://www.propublica.org/article/google-alphabet-ads-fund-disinformation-covid-elections

Skibinski, M. (2023). Special Report: Top brands are sending $2.6 billion to misinformation websites each year. NewsGuard. https://www.newsguardtech.com/special-reports/brands-send-billions-to-misinformation-websites-newsguard-comscore-report/

Ulver, S. (2022). The conflict market: Polarizing consumer culture(s) in counter-democracy. Journal of Consumer Culture, 22(4), 908–928. https://doi.org/10.1177/14695405211026040

Westlund, O., Belair-Gagnon, V., Graves, L., Larsen, R., & Steensen, S. (2024). What Is the Problem with Misinformation? Fact-checking as a Sociotechnical and Problem-Solving Practice. Journalism Studies, 25(8), 898–918. https://doi.org/10.1080/1461670X.2024.2357316

Zimmerman, A. (2024). Not a Blank Slate: The Role of Big Tech in Misinformation and Radicalization. Digital Society, 3(1), 6. https://doi.org/10.1007/s44206-024-00091-5

Zwick, D., & Bradshaw, A. (2016). Biopolitical Marketing and Social Media Brand Communities. Theory, Culture & Society, 33(5), 91–115. https://doi.org/10.1177/0263276415625333

Zwick, D., & Denegri Knott, J. (2009). Manufacturing Customers. Journal of Consumer Culture, 9(2), 221–247. https://doi.org/10.1177/1469540509104375

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