[ecrea] International Journal of Media & Cultural Politics 14.3 published

Intellect is happy to announce that the International Journal of Media & 
Cultural Politics 14.3 is now available! This issue places focus on 
politics in a post-truth era.

For more information about the issue, click here >> 
https://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/journals/view-issue,id=3663/

Content

Politics in a post-truth era
Authors: Darren G. Lilleker

Democracy in a de-civilizing age: The rise of shameless personal truths
Authors: Richard Scullion And Stuart Armon

Discursive construction of truth, ideology and the emergence of 
post-truth narratives in contemporary political communication
Authors: Anastasia Deligiaouri

This article provides a theoretical and philosophical investigation for 
the discursive construction of truth based predominantly upon the 
discourse theory of Laclau and Mouffe but also on insights drawn from 
other scholars. As a theoretical article the aim is to contribute to the 
understanding of post-truth as a recent phenomenon and elaborate on 
several dimensions and aspects of it by employing a conceptual analysis 
enriched with several references from recent literature and published 
articles. Social truth as a social construction is a discourse with a 
privileged signification power over masses. Therefore the conditions for 
the construction of the discourse of truth are a focal topic for 
analysis. On the other hand, the ‘post-truth’ concept, which invaded in 
political life during 2016, puts into contestation several constitutive 
and structural elements of truth and consequently democracy as it 
currently functions in modern liberal states. The article is divided 
into three sections: (1) The first section provides a theoretical 
analysis on what is truth and how it is constructed as a discourse in a 
society; (2) the second section discusses the concept of post-truth and 
the possible reasons for the emergence of post-truth narratives in 
contemporary political communication and (3) the last section delineates 
the impact that post-truth narratives have on the political level, the 
institutional level and the social level.

OPEN ACCESS Online media impact on politics. Views on post-truth 
politics and postpostmodernism
Authors: Susana Salgado

Most of what is considered post-truth politics refers to known features 
of politics and political propaganda. These are old phenomena boosted by 
technology, and in particular by social media. To examine the background 
and genesis of post-truth politics, this article integrates in the 
analysis the impact of online media and the relativism of postmodernity, 
in which the truth is always a discursive construction, never a 
discovery. It also examines populism in the light of this approach. The 
analysis concludes that all these elements play a definite role in 
post-truth politics and that the so-called post-truth era is not simply 
a by-product of populism; relativism, the media and the uses of 
technology also play an important role.

Is post-truth another word for political spin or a radical departure 
from it? Evidence from behind the scenes in UK government 
communications: 1997–2015
Authors: Ruth Garland

The charge of political spin, as a biased and self-advantaging form of 
public communication practiced by media and political actors, is thought 
to have developed alongside 24/7 media during the 1990s. More recently, 
the critique of the political arts of persuasion has deepened with the 
more serious charge of post-truth. Here, facts are deemed as malleable 
and subservient to beliefs, and indeed, can be strategically deployed to 
serve beliefs. This article draws on data from in-depth interviews with 
media and political actors and the analysis of key documents to examine 
the charge of political spin as applied to government communications, 
taking the United Kingdom since 1997 as a case study. It considers 
whether post-truth is just another word for the same phenomenon or a 
radical departure from it. Both charges can be seen as outcomes of the 
increasing mediatization of politics whereby complex sociopolitical 
issues are simplified into narratives and slogans, election campaigning 
becomes an integral part of the everyday process of governing and 
political imperatives challenge the scope within government for the 
scrutiny of verifiable facts and truths. However, the stance taken by 
these charges in relation to evidence, and their acknowledgement of the 
role of accountability in public life and as part of the democratic 
process, are radically different. The article concludes that, far from 
being another word for ‘political spin’, ‘post-truth’ is a radical 
departure from it that signals a serious development: the crisis in 
public communication characterized by a growing public distrust in 
government and the democratic process.

‘Searching for something to believe in’: Voter uncertainty in a 
post-truth environment
Authors: Darren G. Lilleker And Mirjam Liefbroer

As other authors in this collection have stated, post-truth came into 
common parlance as commentators analysed and reflected on election 
campaigns and their results: the suggestion being that emotions and 
beliefs had become more powerful than reasoned, fact-based 
argumentation. Given that most campaigns present their own redacted 
perspective of reality into an environment containing multiple, 
contested alternative interpretations, the association between the most 
contested variant of a campaign, a political contest and post-truth is 
unsurprising. All campaigns contain elements of post-truth, appeals to 
emotions that build bridges between that which is sold and the identity 
of the consumer. Campaigns may encourage people to think but also to 
feel, and as such campaign strategies chime with understandings of human 
engagement and the levels of cognitive attention given, with many 
decisions being gut responses rather than being carefully considered. 
Our research focuses on two UK contests: the 2016 referendum on 
membership of the EU and the subsequent 2017 snap general election. 
Interviews among older voters who voted to leave the EU and younger 
voters who supported Corbyn-led Labour provide insights into how what 
might be seen as peripheral aspects influenced voting decisions. The 
data we suggest highlight challenges for democratic institutions as 
populist voices present themselves as change agents to win support from 
voters dissatisfied with consensus politics. Mainstream politicians 
meanwhile are mistrusted while the arguments of outsiders who appear 
authentic are given credence. Such observations go to the heart of 
issues facing democracy and place debates surrounding post-truth as core 
to those challenges. This article offers insights into how voter choices 
reveal cognitive processes that explain the link between campaign 
communication, belief formation and voter choice-making, all of which 
combine to threaten democracy.

Post-truth, propaganda and the transformation of the spiral of silence
Authors: Stamatis Poulakidakos And Anastasia Veneti And Christos 
Fangonikolopoulos

The crisis of democratic culture?
Authors: Mark J. Bendall And Chris Robertson

Reasonable truth
Authors: Melanie Klinkner

Psychological underpinnings of post-truth politics
Authors: Barry Richards

Book Reviews
Authors: Brian Hughes And Kurt Wirth

The Toxic Meritocracy of Video Games: Why Gaming Culture is the Worst, 
Christopher A. Paul (2018)
Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy, 
Siva Vaidhyanathan (2018)
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