Post-truth Research Articles

Deepfakes, sextortion, and virtual lovers

Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) has taken higher education by storm since late 2022 and offered new opportunities and challenges for educators and learners alike. Yet dominant literature to date has emphasised the challenges of assessing effectively in a post-plagiarism and post-truth era, and the new technological affordances offered. Yet, the costs of generative artificial intelligence stemming beyond academic integrity breaches and student cheating are not well understood. In this panel, we discuss the emerging trends of Generative AI that extend beyond student learning but are nested inside the learning environment - from the emergence of AI-generated content to the side effects of extended use of AI on relationship formation, student social skill development, and social anxiety. We will in particular explore how this is occurring in the high school context and its subsequent applicability to university learners’ loneliness, isolation, and wellbeing. The panel offers a thought-provoking discussion with three academics in three different disciplines and universities, and a student partner with experience in AI usage.

Adam Berinsky. Political Rumors: Why We Accept Misinformation and How to Fight It.

Adam Berinsky. <i>Political Rumors: Why We Accept Misinformation and How to Fight It</i>.

I trust (you) therefore I am! From trust to post-trust: Transforming social paradigms

This paper challenges the conventional belief that trust is an essential component of social cohesion, for example, in the context of climate change denial and post-truth politics. It argues that simply increasing trust or distrust does not address the underlying issues of contemporary societal challenges. This is because these efforts presuppose a ‘trusting subject’ at the heart of the problem. The paper examines the process of subjectification, exploring forms of modern subjectification and how they relate to trust, and how individuals become trusting subjects in relation to and within certain social frameworks. Introducing a new typology, it categorises trust into subjectifying, counter-subjectifying and post-subjectifying forms, revealing how trust both influences and is influenced by social dynamics and power structures. The conclusion advocates a ‘post-trust’ approach, urging a reimagining of relationships with nature and others. This approach emphasises the interconnectedness of human and non-human actors and calls for new forms of relationality and sensitivity to address global challenges effectively.

‘Living in a post-truth era’? Online misinformation in everyday life in rural and urban China

ABSTRACT This paper investigates everyday information seeking and misinformation among Internet users in rural and urban China. The research employs both quantitative and qualitative methods to identify user demographics and categories of misinformation encountered on mobile devices online. The paper makes two contributions: one is to bridge hitherto unconnected research on everyday information practices with the literature on misinformation. The second is to demonstrate that, despite the assumption that China’s tightly controlled online space leads to less of a misinformation problem, this is not the case in everyday life contexts. The findings may have wider implications, especially in the Global South.

Sustainability and Innovation in Green Energy: Biomass as a Renewable Energy Alternative

Objective: The study of the translation of Arabic literature into the Albanian language for the purposes of the Islamic call began as early as the first years when the Albanian regions in the Balkans embraced Islam. From that time, due to the need to learn the religion, individuals were either compelled to learn Arabic themselves or have certain texts translated for them. This study serves as a significant motive and resource in relation to the postmodern and post-truth era. If we refer to historical phases, we will observe that the majority of translated literature over time has been religious, with only a few exceptions, particularly in the literature of the Bejtexhinjtë (albanian muslim poets). This underscores the pivotal role of religious texts in shaping the cultural and spiritual understanding of albanian muslims, while also reflecting the limited but notable influence of secular and poetic works from the same period. Theoric Framework: Studies identify and analyze the Arabic literature into the Albanian language for the purposes of the Islamic call and the objective recognition of the role of the translation s in the formation and intercultural, educational, social and national transformations in albanian society.. Methods: The method used in this research is the quantitative method in the form of content analysis of works published in the field of media studies. The issue of challenges is never one-sided or directed at a single aspect; rather, it spans multiple segments: the translated work, the linguistic culture of the translator, the quality of publication, etc. Results and Conclusions: At the conclusion, we will present findings and recommendations to offer researchers and future scholars a comprehensive overview of the challenges and issues in Albanian translation studies from Arabic. Implications of research: This study is focused on nationwide internal needs, to emphasize those features that unite Albanians and to preserve their identity from external influences.

Cultural bomb: Empowering non-military defense

This study delves into the concept of the “cultural bomb” within the framework of non-military defense empowerment strategies in Indonesia. This approach can potentially change society’s views and attitudes towards various security threats as a realization of strengthening the defense and security system of the universal people (Sishankamrata) per article 30 paragraph (2) of the 1945 constitution. By leveraging media, education, and information technology, the cultural bomb acts as a social weapon that operates powerfully in the “space of mind,” shaping behavior and actions nonviolently. The issue of cultural threats pertains to the infiltration and imposition of foreign cultural values and practices that undermine local traditions and national identity, leading to social fragmentation and weakness. This study proposes the concept of a “cultural bomb” as a policy framework to address and mitigate these cultural threats. The research employs a qualitative approach using the Delphi technique, engaging experts from cultural studies and defense strategies to reach a consensus on the strategic application of the cultural bomb. The results indicate that the cultural bomb can effectively strengthen national identity and awareness of national defense by promoting local values and cultural resilience, thus enhancing societal cohesion and mitigating the impact of foreign cultural influences. The paper outlines the components of a cultural bomb, analyzes its application in international contexts, and discusses its implications in efforts to strengthen national identity and foster a sense of national defense awareness. Focusing on the “war over space of mind” ideology, it introduces “cultural hacking” as a strategic initiative to address cultural power imbalances in the post-truth era.

Reactions of News Producers and Users According to Video Sentiments on YouTube Before and After Confirmation of Political Rumors about North Korea Leader

Reactions of News Producers and Users According to Video Sentiments on YouTube Before and After Confirmation of Political Rumors about North Korea Leader

The Importance Of Public Relations In The Post-Truth Era And The Strategies Followed

‘Fake news’, which are generally created for a specific purpose on different topics, spread rapidly through social media platforms and search engines and prevent the public from accessing real information. Throughout history, fake news and misinformation have been used for various purposes. However, with the introduction of social media into our lives, the dissemination of unproven information or fake news has accelerated, and such content has reached large masses in a short time through both professional content providers and users. Despite the fake news about health and nutrition, raising awareness is a prerequisite for creating healthy societies that consume and eat consciously, and this can be made easier with sustainable public relations. In this study, the function of verification platforms in preventing such information disseminated in the new media environment in the post-truth era is examined. Within the scope of the study, the results of the verification platform teyit.org on health and nutrition claims were analysed. In the study, it was observed that only four out of 14 claims on health and nutrition shared on the internet and social media were found to be true information, and that such information was mostly disseminated through social media.

Digitization of Religious Tafsir: The Fading of Indonesian Ulama Authority in Post Truth Era

In the current post-truth era, the traditional authority and credibility of Ulama, who have historically been regarded as the paramount source of religious knowledge, are increasingly compromised. This research investigates the diminishing role and efficacy of Indonesian Ulama in addressing religious and social challenges due to the pervasive influence of the Internet and social media, which provide rapid and seemingly authoritative solutions that overshadow traditional scholarly roles. The study employs a mixed-method approach, integrating observations, interviews, and comprehensive library research, incorporating both physical and digital sources. The findings elucidate three critical issues: first, the limited digital literacy among traditional Indonesian Ulama, which impedes their effective engagement with digital platforms; second, a notable gap in the public's comprehension of how to utilize digital media for religious discourse, despite an increasing interest in religious matters; and third, the superficial understanding and heightened biases among the public, stemming from the ease of accessing religious solutions via social media. This study makes a significant contribution to the discourse by underscoring the urgent necessity for Ulama to enhance their digital literacy, thereby reclaiming their authoritative role in the socio-religious landscape and ensuring that their insights remain relevant and accessible in the digital age.

The struggle against post-truth politics has always been about white supremacy: Lessons from the informational praxis of SNCC

Exacerbated but by no means invented by President Donald Trump, post-truth politics are defined as a disregard for facts in political discourse and policymaking. The post-truth era is dominated by two forms of informational praxis: misinformation and disinformation. Through the archival record of civil rights organizations, we argue we should not see the present era of post-truth politics as new but instead see it as part of a more prolonged struggle over white supremacy and the broader effort to contain challenges to the US economic and racial order. By contextualizing the geography of post-truth politics, the strategies and tactics civil rights groups use to counter white supremacist lies are important to understand, especially in an era where social media can spread lies and disinformation at lightning-quick speed. Thus, we also explore how civil rights organizations challenged disinformation and the control and suppression of information perpetuated by those in power.

Liberal visions of multiculturalism and majoritarianism

Liberalism advances democratic rights and representation through three principles. First, it seeks to protect individuals from abusive state power. Second, it shares an affinity with the epistemology of the Enlightenment, where an objective world can be discovered and observed. Third, it limits “tyranny of the majority” through civil liberties that counter the weight of public opinion and political rights that enable political competition of ideas. Rapidly evolving demands for recognition in the United States have advanced a broad critique of liberalism, highlighting the boundaries it imposes on representation as well as its limited success protecting rights. This essay traces disenchantment with liberalism to two very different sources: first, many progressives who resent how the jurisprudence of equal opportunity obscures efforts to achieve actual equality reject “anonymity” under the law—removing a core civil rights principle for promoting fairness. Such demands for more explicit rights and representation conflict with the majoritarian model’s application of liberalism, which biases cultural assimilation over multicultural integration. Movements for recognition increasingly challenge both assimilation and the institutional devices of multicultural integration. The other source of tension around recognition comes from the right, where populists have set out to revive nativist ideas of coerced assimilation or outright homogenization through exclusion (ie, non-recognition). Such failures of representation have promoted subjectivist views as a credential for contesting facts. The paper argues for “pluralist solidarity” as a tool for reconciling multiculturalism with new rights and demands for recognition emanating from liberalism’s traditions of individual liberty. This device aims to help separate the quest for recognition and dignity from the subjectivity that contributes to post-truth politics.

Untruth as the New Democratic Ethos: Reading Michel Foucault’s Interpretation of Diogenes of Sinope’s True Life in the Time of Post-Truth Politics

Since 2016, the rise of post-truth politics has created a situation of democratic discontent in the west. While many scholars tend to regard post-truth politics as a threat to democratic order, I would like to propose that what we have been witnessing in this form of politics has been the transformation of the democratic ethos. By turning to Michel Foucault’s lecture on the true life of Diogenes of Sinope, delivered at College De France in 1984, I ascertain the framework for demonstrating how we can approach a new shape of democratic ethos in our era of post-truth politics. I argue that in Diogenes’s true life, Foucault saw the concrete life, which could liberate each individual from the constraints of their conventional lives by emphasizing the material conditions of all human bodies. Diogenes’s life could then be a form of self-emancipation since it not only showed how untrue the conventional life was but also released each individual from any conventions estranged from them. Relying on this point, I propose the notion of untruth as the new ground of our democratic lives. Though post-truth politics destroys the objective form of truth, the untruth—as its main element—can play a leading role in grounding our democratic ethos to the extent that it asserts our capability of self-emancipation.

The uses and gratifications (U&G) model for understanding fake news sharing behavior on social media

BackgroundSocial networking sites (SNSs) have made information sharing easier than ever, this ease has also facilitated the spread of misinformation. ObjectiveTo ascertain and validate the uses and gratifications (U&G) factors associated with fake news-sharing behaviors on SNSs. MethodsA five-factor model based on the U&G theory was measured to estimate fake news-sharing behavior among university students, using the structural equation modeling. FindingsPassing time has a strong positive influence on fake news sharing behavior (β = 0.517, CR = 4.017, p < 0.001). Information seeking has a weak and non-significant positive influence on fake news sharing behavior (β = 0.308, CR = 1.569, p = 0.117). However, socialization (β = −0.164, CR = −1.883, p = 0.377), entertainment (β = −0.070, CR = −0.878, p = 0.380), and information sharing (β = −0.044, CR = −0.295, p = 0.768) gratifications have non-significant negative influences on fake news sharing behavior. The goodness-of-fit indices indicate that the proposed model is acceptable (χ2 = 2.195 df = 237; p < 0.001; GFI = 0.920; IFI = 0.901; CFI = 0.899; SRMR: 0.077; RMSEA = 0.049). ConclusionPassing time is the key predictor of fake news sharing behavior, while information-seeking gratification also contributes positively to this behavior. The study suggests several different approaches to prevent the spread of fake news, including implementing news literacy programs, installing a firewall, supporting fact-checking organizations, and implementing regulations and legislations for responsible social media practices. ImplicationsThe study is significant because it goes beyond the “what” of fake news sharing to understand the “why”. This deeper understanding can lead to more effective solutions for promoting responsible information-sharing behavior and combating the spread of fake news in the post-truth era.

Resisting Post-Truth Politics as Epistemicide: Learning from Trans*, Indigenous American and Palestinian Lived Experiences

Resisting Post-Truth Politics as Epistemicide: Learning from Trans*, Indigenous American and Palestinian Lived Experiences

Social Media and Mental Health: Examining the Relationship of the Use of Social Media to Anxiety

There is no lack of information in this Post-truth era: everyone discloses, narrates, and comments whatever they want on social media. Granted, the convenience of social software allows people to access or share information with others at any time, but it also conditions them to form dependencies. Once this dependence is formed, people's level of concentration and independent thinking gradually decreases, and stories, news, and videos on the Internet increase the degree of influence on ideas and mindset. This paper aims to examine how social media augments peoples anxiety through its various ways of influencing mindsets, especially focusing on adolescents. This objective is accomplished through literature research and a questionnaire to provide a theoretical basis for the relationship between social media and anxiety. The analyzed documents are selected to set up a framework to deconstruct how social media causes anxiety. The survey, presented in an online questionnaire, targets adolescents who spend time on social media. The questionnaire requires the respondents to describe their emotional experience on social media, including whether they detected negative feelings due to specific moments on things posted on the Internet.

Student-scientist interactions: student value perceptions in science communication meetings

ABSTRACT The dissemination and acceptance of misinformation/disinformation and the denial of scientific claims and facts have become increasingly common practices in the post-truth era. The recent global pandemic has reaffirmed the importance of science communication (Sci-Comm) in a dialogical model that supports public engagement with science. Sci-Comm may promote scientific literacy by sharing knowledge and attitudes about science and is considered an important strategy for public engagement, but it requires evaluation based on participants’ motivations. This mixed-methods study examined middle school students’ subjective task values regarding Sci-Comm meetings with scientists. Seventh-grade students (N = 80) attended five meetings aligned with science curriculum topics. Based on the expectancy-value theory, students completed surveys assessing the meetings’ utility, attainment, and intrinsic value. Results showed that value ratings increased significantly across meetings, varying by topic. Qualitative themes highlighted meeting scientists, asking questions, and the interactive structure as valuable aspects. This research provides important insights into the current body of knowledge regarding the influential role of Sci-Comm within the expectancy-value theory framework. Additionally, it may guide educators and researchers in designing effective Sci-Comm sessions to increase student motivation and engagement in science, thereby enhancing the existing literature in science education and Sci-Comm.

Media Capture in the Post-Truth Era: media freedom is a function of the quality of democracy

Media Capture in the Post-Truth Era: media freedom is a function of the quality of democracy

Conspiracy Thinking About the 15-Minute City: Something from Nothing?

This paper interrogates the seemingly absurd conspiracies associated with the “15-minute City,” an idea taking hold of urban communities across the globe to bring more amenities, including parks, recreation facilities, and libraries, within a 15-minute walk of where people live. Introduced as a mundane planning initiative to improve livability, eliminate or shorten car trips, and improve health outcomes, the 15-minute City has encountered surprising, yet resolute attack by conspiracy theorists who view it as a concealed leftist tactic to imprison local inhabitants within restrictive neighbourhood boundaries. In exploring the origins of the 15-minute City idea and the emergence of conspiracy theories that surround it, this paper unpacks the complex interplay of social, political, and psychological factors that drive current conspiratorial thinking about ostensibly benign policies and practices. In so doing, it considers the responsibility of leisure scholars in an age of misinformation, alternative facts, and post truth.

Research on the Reversal Phenomenon of Online Public Opinion in the Post-Truth Era

"Post-truth" is full of negative effects of the current network public opinion - ignoring the truth, disregarding the facts, dissolving the authority, position first, coupled with the frequent occurrence of global emergencies and hotspot events, the netizens wrapped up in group emotions have to join the public opinion of the network world carnival, this phenomenon also provides an environment for rumors to grow secretly, seriously undermining the harmony and stability of the Internet ecosystem. This phenomenon also provides an environment for network rumors to grow secretly, which seriously undermines the harmony and stability of the Internet ecology. In this paper, we take the "fat cat" incident as the starting point to analyze the impact, evolutionary causes and countermeasures of the popular public opinion events.

Tengka, identity politics, and the Fiqh of civilization: The authority of Madura’s Kiai in the post-truth era

This paper explores the role of tengka, a distinctive moral ethic of Madurese culture, in addressing the escalating identity politics in the post-truth era. It focuses on how religious leaders, known as Kiai, in Pamekasan, Madura, respond to identity politics by applying the concept of Fiqh of civilization as a framework for analysis. The study uses a socio-legal approach to explore three key aspects of the Kiai's role: the shifting dynamics of identity politics among the Kiai, the integration of tengka into their approach to identity politics, and the potential benefits and obstacles in this integration process. The findings reveal that the identity politics of the Madura’s Kiai authorities have experienced substantial evolution in the post-truth era. Despite various challenges faced by tengka in the context of identity politics, it presents substantial opportunities for internalization as a strategy to tackle these issues. This aligns with the Fiqh of civilization, which formulates the anticipation of identity politics in realizing al-mashālih al-'ammah (public interest) and strengthening religious moderation. The academic contribution of this research lies in the Fiqh of civilization, which is the contextualization of Fiqh al-siyāsah in analyzing identity politics, offering a unique perspective on the interaction between traditional moral and ethical values and the challenges of modern society.