Guarding the Guardians: Fictional Representation of Manipulated and Fake News in Graham Greene’s Work

Abstract

Abstract Drawing upon mass communication theories, concretely Walter Lippman’s theory of stereotypes, Erving Goffman’s theory of frames, and Jean Baudrillard’s theory of simulacra and simulation, we examine the fictional representation of manipulated and fake news in three novels by Graham Greene, Stamboul Train (1932), The Quiet American (1955), and A Burnt-Out Case (1960). In this paper, within the frame of one of the key concepts in his work, the ‘virtue of disloyalty’, we argue that Greene’s fictional representation of journalism (mal)practice constitutes a piece of grit in the machinery of the western press, questioning the political and cultural dominant discourse conveyed to the public. In this line, Greene’s literary representations of the journalistic practice can be read as indicators (and, in turn, shapers) of the western culture’s prevailing perceptions of the reported news and the professionals that convey the facts to a general public. With his fictional representation of the profession of journalism, Greene makes readers aware of the way information can be manipulated and the necessity of developing a critical mind concerning the news and how they are conveyed through the media.