Post-truth Research Articles

PROSES KOMUNIKASI KADER PKK DALAM MENGHADAPI HOAKS INFORMASI KESEHATAN PADA ERA POST TRUTH

This research article is the result of research conducted on PKK cadre teams in Bandung, Sumedang, and Banjar districts. When hoaxes and health information become studies that have an impact on people's lives, it seems like something normal. In fact, who would have thought that the hoax of health information could have fatal consequences for some people, especially in the case of this article being reviewed is the PKK cadre team in the area. Another interesting thing is that the hoax of health information was felt by cadre mothers recently, more precisely during the post truth era. This phenomenon becomes interesting to be studied in depth, therefore the authors describe the findings from observations and interviews in the field. The findings generated in this study are; 1) the hoax health information spreads quickly so that it is difficult for cadre mothers to distinguish and confirm the accuracy of the information; 2) there were some female cadres who were trapped in the hoax of health information and then practiced what was conveyed in the hoax information; 3) the communication process carried out by the cadre mothers in dealing with the hoax of health information can be described starting from the communicator, messages, communicants, and the effects felt by the cadre.

Better Problems

Better Problems

Research trends on climate communication in the post-truth era

ABSTRACT Objectives Climate change is a vital environmental issue that every citizen in the world needs to be concerned about. Individually and collectively, regionally and globally, citizens should make informed decisions to overcome the climate crisis. However, in recent years, people are exposed to climate-related misinformation, disinformation, and scientific information through various social channels. Method This research aimed to investigate how climate communication has been positioned within peer-reviewed empirical research articles. A systematic review of 88 empirical research articles indexed in Scopus and Web of Science databases between 2010 and 2020 has been performed. Results The findings revealed that while the emphasis has been on climate communication for adaptation in the majority of the articles, framing, risk perception, and mitigation have also been highly addressed. Nearly half of the reviewed articles were based on multi-way communication including engagement in discussions, participation in pro-environmental behavior (n=43), while the rest adopted one-way communication to address climate issues (n=45). Conclusion Communicating climate science with the public has emerged as a significant goal among climate scientists, but there is no consensus on how to do it effectively. This research can provide evidence-based indicators for where more emphasis should be placed on future climate communication research.

Literasi Media Sosial Di Era Post Truth

Social media is one of the new media which in addition to having a positive impact as technological advancement. The ease and speed of interacting and disseminating information is the main attraction of this service. In addition to having a positive impact, social media also has a negative impact as a medium for disseminating information. The negative side of technological progress through social media creates a new phenomenon in the midst of this digital era called post-truth. Post-truth as a new era is marked by the exclusion of truth and putting forward emotions. In simple terms, post-truth can be interpreted that people are looking for justification rather than the truth. This paper aims to find out how social media literacy is in the post-truth era. Social media literacy is a person's skill in finding, selecting, and applying information sources on social media. These skills are needed to remain able to carry out social media activities wisely and safely so that audiences are critical of the media as well as determine the information needed from the media. In addition, the government's efforts through the regulation of the ITE Law are an important way to combat post-truth on social media.

Religious Moderation in Pesantren Culture Era Post-Truth for Santri-College Students of Unwahas and UIN Walisongo

This study aims to find out: 1) understanding and moderation of the religious attitudes of Islamic boarding school students in Unwahas and Walisongo, and 2) Islamic boarding school culture in the post-truth era at student boarding schools in Unwahas and Walisongo. The type of this research is a qualitative field research. The technique of collecting data using observation, documentation, interviews and FGD methods. The results of this study are: 1) understanding and moderation of the religious attitudes of students at UIN Walisongo and Unwahas Semarang manifested in several ways, including: national commitment, tolerance, anti-violence and radicalism and respect for local wisdom inspired by the norm of muhafadzatu 'ala al-qadim al-shalih wa al-akhdzu bi al-jadid al-ashlah . 2) Pesantren culture in the post-truth era experienced an interesting dynamic process. The development of digital media has made pesantren have a new tradition by broadcasting the recitation of the kitab kuning , dhikr , and reading dziba' live - virtual. Although the pesantren culture has spread in virtual areas, offline pesantren activities with the community are still ongoing.

Scientific literacy, librarians and information literacy in the post-truth era

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to challenge librarians to reconceptualize their professional self-image and practice so that it more closely aligns with the information science discipline that is part of the Masters of Library and Information Science degree.Design/methodology/approachThis column is primarily theoretical and philosophical but also draws on the author’s observations of trends and patterns in both librarianship and changes in information needs in recent years.FindingsUrgent, high-cost information needs created by COVID-19 and climate change coexist in a reality where technological change has made traditional librarian roles and functions less critical. By developing their information science skills and strengthening their professional identity as information scientists, librarians have the opportunity to address the urgent information needs of the day while remaining highly relevant professionals.Practical implicationsLibrarians will need to strengthen their science-related skills and knowledge and begin to promote themselves as information scientists.Social implicationsLibrarians are in a position to make a meaningful contribution to two of the most pressing challenges of the day, climate change and dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.Originality/valueThis paper is relevant to all librarians at any stage of their career. It will help them to reflect on both their skillset and career path and to make any needed adjustments so that they can remain relevant in a volatile and demanding information environment.

The Index of Evidence: speculative methodologies in response to the post-truth era

The past year has shown that even the fundamental idea of ‘evidence’ – in health contexts, but also more broadly - is coming under increasing strain. This open letter argues that the current crises of evidence and knowledge in which we find ourselves demands new speculative methodologies. It introduces the Index of Evidence – a Beacon Project funded by Exeter University’s Wellcome Centre for Cultures and Environments of Health - as one example of such a methodology, outlining its theoretical foundations and process. The key innovation of this project is to rethink the form and presentation that research can take. Using the conceptual and material affordances of the index, it merges the creative and critical in ways that aim to make an important contribution to more inter-connected, theoretically sophisticated thinking around evidence.

Cultural Politics, Critical Reflexivity, and Post-Truth Politics: A Response to Clayton Chin’s The Practice of Political Theory: Rorty and Continental Thought

Abstract In this response to Chin’s The Practice of Political Theory: Rorty and Continental Thought, I complete two tasks. First, I clarify that Chin’s project is a metatheoretical one, aiming to reconstruct Rorty’s account of political theory as practice. Second, I claim that this reconstruction makes it possible to respond, on Rorty’s behalf, to charges that his position is complacent and acquiescent, especially as it relates to the contemporary issue of post-truth politics.

The Truth about Nature: Environmentalism in the Era of Post-Truth Politics and Platform Capitalism

The Truth about Nature: Environmentalism in the Era of Post-Truth Politics and Platform Capitalism

Rethinking Fake News: Disinformation and Ideology during the time of COVID-19 Global Pandemic

Digital media and citizen journalism has escalated the infiltration of fake news attempting to create a post truth society (Lazer et al., 2018). The COVID-19 pandemic has seen a surge of misinformation leading to anti-mask, anti-vaccine and anti-5G protests on a global scale. Although the term ‘misinformation’ has been generalized in media and scholarly work, there is a fundamental difference between how misinformation impacts society, compared to more strategically planned disinformation attacks. In this study we explore the ideological constructs of citizens towards acceptance or rejection of disinformation during the heightened time of a COVID-19 global health crisis. Our analysis follows two specific disinformation propagandas evaluated through social network analysis of Twitter data in addition to qualitative insights generated from tweets and in-depth interviews.

Water research and nationalism in the post-truth era

Water has always been political in nature and competing narratives of water rights and equity are not new. The governance and management of water is frequently contested by stakeholders and opinion...

Trolls, Pressure and Agenda: The discursive fight on Twitter in Turkey

Censorship, banning, and imprisonment are different methods used to suppress dissenting voices in traditional media and have now evolved into a new form with bot and troll accounts in the digital media age in Turkey. Is it possible to construct a bloc with counter-trolls against the escalating political pressure on the media in the post-truth era? Are counter-trolls capable of setting the agenda? This article discusses the possibility of constructing a bloc against the escalating political pressure in Turkey on the media through counter-trolls in the context of communicative rationality. First, it observes the ruling party’s troll politics strategy on Twitter, then examines the counter-discourses against political pressure today; thereafter it analyzes the discourse in hashtags on the agenda of the Boğaziçi University protests. Firstly, 18,000 tweets are examined to understand the suppress-communication strategy of the AK Party trolls. Secondly, the agenda-setting capacity of counter-trolls is observed between January 1, 2020, and February 5, 2021, and 18,000 tweets regarding Boğaziçi protests are examined to analyze the communication strategy of the counter-trolls. The study shows that the populist government instrumentalizes communication in social media, and Twitter does not have enough potential for the Gramscian counter-hegemony, but the organized actions and discourses have the potential to create public opinion.

Critical theory in crisis? a reconsideration

The recent rise of populism has generated a resurgence of interest in critical theory, in the wider public debate and in academia—with critical theory being variously accused of paving the way for post-truth politics, hailed as explaining the rise of populism, or criticized for failing to achieve its emancipatory political goals. Failure of the latter kind, many International Relations scholars argue, calls for a fundamental reform of critical theory if it is to address current political developments. Investigating this claim, this article makes three contributions: First, an empirical account shows that, far from failing, critical theory has been politically highly successful. Second, a theoretical reconstruction of critical theory shows that it is precisely this success that leads to the alienation of critical theorists from their own approach. In light of this analysis, third, the article concludes that the task of critical theory in times of Brexit and Trump does not lie in abandoning its core principles but in systematically applying them to a new historical conjuncture.

Digital populism and disinformation in «post-truth» times

This article presents an attempt to understand the relationship between digital populism and post-truth politics. At first, we will try to understand the fuzzy semantic category of populism. Next, we examine the growth of right-wing populism in Europe and its main characteristics. Finally, we analyze how the current model of networked communication, particularly direct communication, and the anatomy of digital social networks, become a fertile field for the dissemination of populist rhetoric, articulating the concept with the modern mechanisms of disinformation and falsification of reality.

On Some Political Euphemisms in the Post-Truth Era (a Case Study of the English Language)

Th paper focuses on the euphemisms “terminological inexactitude”, “to be economical with the truth” and “alternative facts” in English political discourse of the post-truth era. Ths period is characterised by certain linguistic means, and euphemisation plays an important role here. It is shown that in the post-truth era, where borders between truth and lies are blurred, these euphemisms synonymous with the nouns “lie” are of particular relevance in political communication. Th euphemism “terminological inexactitude” still serves as a metaphor of lying originally determined by speech etiquette and historical traditions, which is the case, for example, during the debates in the British parliament, where there is an offial list of taboo words and expressions referred to as unparliamentary language. However, the other two euphemisms partly change their functionality. In the post-truth world, the expressions “economical with the truth” and “alternative facts” are used by the speaker to deliberately distort reality and conceal the truth rather than to follow the rules of politically correct speech.

Rethinking journalism standards in the era of post-truth politics: from truth keepers to truth mediators

In this article, we argue for a pragmatic understanding of the role of news media and journalism not as truth keepers but as truth mediators in the public sphere. In the current debate on ‘post-truth politics’ the emphasis is often put on the formulation of ethical guidelines and legal solutions to regain control over ‘unbound journalism’ or to re-establish truth in the news media. Instead of holding journalists individually accountable for the spread of fake news, we consider truth as an unstable outcome of fact-finding, information-seeking and contestation, where journalists act as professional brokers. Journalists are not individuals that are closer to facts or more devoted to truth than others. They are rather embedded in a professional field of journalism practices that help to establish the value of information in a trusted way that becomes acceptable and convincing for the majority. Standards and procedures of journalism can therefore not be applied in a way to detect truth in an absolute way and defend it against falsehood, but to approach truth in the most reliable and acceptable way. The truth value of information then becomes the (unstable) outcome of a democratically necessary procedure of critical debate facilitated by journalists.

Journalistic Professionalism and Objectivity in the Age of Digital Media: A Case Study of the United States

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, we have been greatly impacted by the shift from the Internet to the mobile Internet for that the emergence of the mobile Internet indicates that the channels for audiences to receive information will become extensive and more pluralistic. Traditional media, such as newspapers and television, which had a high market share and viewership, are facing an unprecedented crisis. Today, the essence of many conflict crises in the world lies in the distortion of values caused by the bias of the truth in the process of communication. Therefore, this paper argues that in today’s noisy public opinion field and post-truth era, it is necessary to discuss the objectivity of news again for it is an important part of journalistic professionalism, and only a good grasp of the methods and concepts of objectivity can reduce the occurrence of conflicts to a certain extent. In the following, I will analyse the definition, cases and development history of objectivity in America by externalizing the philosophical concept into real cases, and explore the practical significance of the existence of journalistic objectivity in the digital media era.

Exclusion and Epistemic Community

In a post-truth era, taking seriously the assertions of political figures and what other people say on the internet strikes many as irrational and gullible. Let us call this reaction the “incredulous reaction.” In this paper, I consider a common response to the targets of the incredulous reaction: excluding them from activities like debate and discounting their beliefs as relevant to our own. This exclusion is motivated by the assumption that those who continue to place epistemic trust in a post-truth society are acting irrationally. I begin with an argument that we can justifiably exclude irrational persons from our epistemic activities. I then present a conflict that emerges when we take the wellbeing of our epistemic community to be an end in and of itself, and not merely a means for pursuing other epistemic goods. I propose that healthy epistemic communities depend on networks of epistemic trust and on ensuring their members are treated with the epistemic respect they deserve. If we were to adopt the development of a healthy epistemic community as a goal, then excluding others may no longer be a justifiable choice.

HeadlineStanceChecker: Exploiting summarization to detect headline disinformation

The headline of a news article is designed to succinctly summarize its content, providing the reader with a clear understanding of the news item. Unfortunately, in the post-truth era, headlines are more focused on attracting the reader’s attention for ideological or commercial reasons, thus leading to mis- or disinformation through false or distorted headlines. One way of combating this, although a challenging task, is by determining the relation between the headline and the body text to establish the stance. Hence, to contribute to the detection of mis- and disinformation, this paper proposes an approach (HeadlineStanceChecker) that determines the stance of a headline with respect to the body text to which it is associated. The novelty rests on the use of a two-stage classification architecture that uses summarization techniques to shape the input for both classifiers instead of directly passing the full news body text, thereby reducing the amount of information to be processed while keeping important information. Specifically, summarization is done through Positional Language Models leveraging on semantic resources to identify salient information in the body text that is then compared to its corresponding headline. The results obtained show that our approach achieves 94.31% accuracy for the overall classification and the best FNC-1 relative score compared with the state of the art. It is especially remarkable that the system, which uses only the relevant information provided by the automatic summaries instead of the whole text, is able to classify the different stance categories with very competitive results, especially in the discuss stance between the headline and the news body text. It can be concluded that using automatic extractive summaries as input of our approach together with the two-stage architecture is an appropriate solution to the problem.

The Hidden Dangers of Fake News in Post-Truth Politics

The problem of “fake news” is an important aspect of post-truth politics. Despite calls to abandon the term—based on fears that Trump has corrupted it through partisanship and claiming credit for its invention—there is truly such a thing as fake news, which is the creation and dissemination of news claims that are intentionally false. The obvious danger is that someone might take a fake story for real, causing us to believe a falsehood (such as that Trump’s inauguration crowd was bigger than Obama’s). But one hidden danger is that—in an environment in which fake news is prevalent—we might also begin to take real news for fake. This inability to tell the difference between fact and fiction—truth from falsehood—breeds cynicism and lack of trust in the media, which could pave the way for authoritarian rule.