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Faith, 'alternative facts' and 'fake news' in a 'post-truth' world
But in a post-truth world, instead of Waze, we get lost in a maze of tweets, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, WhatsApp, YouTube and other social media user-generated content.
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But in a post-truth world, instead of Waze, we get lost in a maze of tweets, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, WhatsApp, YouTube and other social media user-generated content. (Shutterstock.com/File)
C
all me old fashioned, but I grew up believing that news should be properly investigated, verified, balanced, reliable and truthful. But these days, we are inundated with “hoaxes,” “fake news,” and of course, Kellyanne Conway’s infamous “alternative facts” that horrifically now seem to be the norm, instigated by her boss, United States President Donald Trump.
Mainstream journalism is really getting a bashing these days, not just from Trump who considers the media the enemy. Hello? And I thought the press was the Fourth Estate and the US a bastion of democracy. I guess I thought wrong.
Then there’s the internet, which wonderfully brings the world onto our screens, but which also has had the effect of hurting the traditional media business model, creating information overload and producing a mishmash of gossip, rumor, assertions and allegations made by, well, anyone really. Even worse, we live in an era where Claudio Magris, a well-known Italian writer, says: “Lies have become products and mendacity has embedded itself into social, political and even cultural life.”
Aha, the so-called “post-truth” world and “post-truth” politics, whereby emotions, personal belief and ignorance shape public opinion!
