Re-thinking Mediations of Post-truth Politics and Trust

Truth hasn’t disappeared but it has been weaponised to suit the agendas of both reactionary populists and forgetful liberals. This wonderful and accessible book critiques the assumption that we have only recently entered a dystopian world dominated by ‘fake news’ and ‘disinformation’. Instead, its rich variety of essays place history and power at the heart of the meaning of post-truth, positioning it less as a universal variable than a specific marker of political and cultural anxieties about contemporary capitalism. Des Freedman, Professor, Department of Media, Communications and Cultural Studies, University of London In Re-thinking Mediations of Post-truth and Trust, Jayson Harsin has brought together a stunning array of critical contributions to this most urgent of contemporary questions. Collectively, the book's chapters radically eschew those nostalgic lamentations for a mythical time when 'objective facts' always won out over 'fake news'. Instead, the authors provide an astute conjunctural analysis of post-truth, insisting that the intensifying 'crisis' in public trust must be understood in contexts of power and injustice, including racism, ethnonationalism, misogyny, debt, war, and the political economy of media. Covering issues from mirror selfies, deepfakes, the manosphere, rape culture, to the hyper-collusion between media and ethnonationalist governments, this collection argues compellingly that post-truth must be understood first and foremost as an anxious public mood - one which arises from the systemic failings of liberal democracy. Jilly Boyce Kay, Loughborough University This volume of work by leading critical thinkers is a vital contribution to the study of culture, politics, and post-truth. The book clarifies that the practices and meanings surrounding post-truth, which tend to be preoccupied with fact-checking and combatting disinformation, should be understood as historically and internationally fluctuating cultural formations. The volume's authors insightfully unpack how situated popular cultural formations directly shape politics. Brett Nicholls, University of Otago, New Zealand While the layers of the digital and data-driven media society evolutions have become a subject of systemic investigations, a few publications address the cultural flavours in researching, experiencing, and perceiving the value of authentic communications. The collective work edited by Jayson Harsin has a high potential to advance our knowledge and wisdom on the origins and theories of fake news and misinformation alongside the critical cultural infrastructure for post-truth society and politics. The multicultural team of research traditions represented by Western and non-Western scholars successfully contribute to the theory-building and critical reflections on the post-truth case studies. Michał Głowacki, University of Warsaw, Poland Truth hasn’t disappeared but it has been weaponised to suit the agendas of both reactionary populists and forgetful liberals. This wonderful and accessible book critiques the assumption that we have only recently entered a dystopian world dominated by ‘fake news’ and ‘disinformation’. Instead, its rich variety of essays place history and power at the heart of the meaning of post-truth, positioning it less as a universal variable than a specific marker of political and cultural anxieties about contemporary capitalism. Des Freedman, Professor, Department of Media, Communications and Cultural Studies, University of London In Re-thinking Mediations of Post-truth and Trust, Jayson Harsin has brought together a stunning array of critical contributions to this most urgent of contemporary questions. Collectively, the book's chapters radically eschew those nostalgic lamentations for a mythical time when 'objective facts' always won out over 'fake news'. Instead, the authors provide an astute conjunctural analysis of post-truth, insisting that the intensifying 'crisis' in public trust must be understood in contexts of power and injustice, including racism, ethnonationalism, misogyny, debt, war, and the political economy of media. Covering issues from mirror selfies, deepfakes, the manosphere, rape culture, to the hyper-collusion between media and ethnonationalist governments, this collection argues compellingly that post-truth must be understood first and foremost as an anxious public mood - one which arises from the systemic failings of liberal democracy. Jilly Boyce Kay, Loughborough University This volume of work by leading critical thinkers is a vital contribution to the study of culture, politics, and post-truth. The book clarifies that the practices and meanings surrounding post-truth, which tend to be preoccupied with fact-checking and combatting disinformation, should be understood as historically and internationally fluctuating cultural formations. The volume's authors insightfully unpack how situated popular cultural formations directly shape politics. Brett Nicholls, University of Otago, New Zealand While the layers of the digital and data-driven media society evolutions have become a subject of systemic investigations, a few publications address the cultural flavours in researching, experiencing, and perceiving the value of authentic communications. The collective work edited by Jayson Harsin has a high potential to advance our knowledge and wisdom on the origins and theories of fake news and misinformation alongside the critical cultural infrastructure for post-truth society and politics. The multicultural team of research traditions represented by Western and non-Western scholars successfully contribute to the theory-building and critical reflections on the post-truth case studies. Michał Głowacki, University of Warsaw, Poland