Media Manipulation And Propaganda In The Post-Truth Era
Media Manipulation And Propaganda In The Post-Truth Era

Summary/Abstract: The birth of the post-truth era, i.e. the advent of alternative media and internet social networks,has brought along a great deal of demagoguery, nonsense, lies, hoaxes, disinformation (a trendierterm being ‘fake news’) and conspiracy theories, with propaganda and manipulation being thekey features here. Dissemination of disinformation and its effects on individuals, society andpolitics are among the most debated topics of our day, although, frankly, it is in fact a very oldphenomenon. The advent of digital media has brought, apart from other things, a decline ofpublic trust in traditional (mainstream) media, and conversely a boom in alternative informationsources. Meanwhile, it is not entirely clear what the term alternative with respect to mass mediashould actually mean. Perhaps free media? Independent media? Attempts to define alternativemedia against the background of mainstream media contain quite a few options to graspthe alternateness. In our contribution we endeavour to find the causes of the strongly negativeconnotations surrounding the term alternative media. This term is not infrequently linked to anunprecedented rise of media with disinformation and conspiracy agenda. Nevertheless, wepoint out why it perhaps should be more appropriate to grasp this term in a more neutral way,not only in academia, considering that such sources in many cases provide scope for differentinterpretation of the dominant ideology in society and information disseminated under its aegis.

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