March 30th, 2021, 3-4pm

How do we understand post-truth in social media after Trump?

Moderated by Dr Catherine Happer

During what we now might call ‘the Trump years’, we witnessed the emergence and widespread use by journalists, academics and thinkers of the term ‘post truth’, implicit to which is a sense of disruption to the normal or preceding condition in which ‘truth’ was held sacred. Media scholars however have long since argued (and demonstrated empirically) that media content often presents a partial version of ‘truth’ at best, and has been deeply dishonest in the neoliberal era at worst. Meanwhile audiences immersed in multiple information ecologies across social media platforms increasingly recognise that the idea of one privileged lens on the world is contestable. In this context, are we to understand Trump as an inevitable consequence of the current political and technological age, or should we see him as an aberration? If so, in what way should he be understood as qualitatively different? More generally, does society still place a high value on ‘truth’? And, if so, how should we assess the credibility of information produced from multiple and competing sources?

Zoom link to your inbox in the morning