Democracy And Fake News: Information Manipulation And Post-Truth Politics

Description

This book explores the challenges that disinformation, fake news, and post-truth politics pose to democracy from a multidisciplinary perspective. The authors analyse and interpret how the use of technology and social media as well as the emergence of new political narratives has been progressively changing the information landscape, undermining some of the pillars of democracy. The volume sheds light on some topical questions connected to fake news, thereby contributing to a fuller understanding of its impact on democracy. In the Introduction, the editors offer some orientating definitions of post-truth politics, building a theoretical framework where various different aspects of fake news can be understood. The book is then divided into three parts: Part I helps to contextualise the phenomena investigated, offering definitions and discussing key concepts as well as aspects linked to the manipulation of information systems, especially considering its reverberation on democracy. Part II considers the phenomena of disinformation, fake news, and post-truth politics in the context of Russia, which emerges as a laboratory where the phases of creation and diffusion of fake news can be broken down and analysed; consequently, Part II also reflects on the ways to counteract disinformation and fake news. Part III moves from case studies in Western and Central Europe to reflect on the methodological difficulty of investigating disinformation, as well as tackling the very delicate question of detection, combat, and prevention of fake news. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of political science, law, political philosophy, journalism, media studies, and computer science, since it provides a multidisciplinary approach to the analysis of post-truth politics. Cover......Page 1 Half Title......Page 2 Series Page......Page 3 Title Page......Page 4 Copyright Page......Page 5 Contents......Page 6 List of figures......Page 9 List of tables......Page 10 Notes on contributors......Page 11 Preface......Page 14 Introduction: In search of paradigms: Disinformation, fake news, and post-truth politics......Page 16 PART I Post-truth politics and the challenges to democracy......Page 32 1 Reading Arendt to rethink truth, science, and politics in the era of fake news......Page 34 2 Inequality in the public sphere: Epistemic injustice, discrimination, and violence......Page 45 3 Incorporating intersectionality into AI ethics......Page 55 4 How post-truth politics transformed and shaped the outcome of the 2016 Brexit referendum......Page 68 5 Information and democracy: Fake news as an emotional weapon......Page 79 6 Searching for a unicorn: Fake news and electoral behaviour......Page 92 7 Once upon Covid-19: A tale of misleading information going viral......Page 107 PART II From disinformation to post-truth Politics: Evidences from Russia......Page 120 8 Lie to live: The production of a faked reality as an existential function of Putin's regime......Page 122 9 Playing the Russian disinformation game: Information operations from Soviet tactics to Putin's sharp power......Page 134 10 Myths and realities of Putinism in post-truth politics......Page 147 11 Responding to alleged Russian interference by focussing on the vulnerabilities that make it possible......Page 158 PART III Dilemmas of contrasting disinformation and fake news......Page 170 12 Information spreading and the role of automated accounts on Twitter: Two case studies......Page 172 13 Radical-right political activism on the web and the challenge for European democracy: A perspective from Eastern and Central Europe......Page 188 14 When a credible source turns 'fake': The Relotius affair and the German system for combating fake news......Page 203 15 "But verifying facts is what we do!": Fact-checking and journalistic professional autonomy......Page 214 16 The EU Code of Practice on Disinformation and the risk of the privatisation of censorship......Page 229 Index......Page 241