Critical Literacy in the Post-Truth Media Landscape

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (8) ◽  
pp. 1024-1036 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin C Barton
Keyword(s):  
Critical Literacy ◽  
The United States ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Education Students ◽  
The People ◽  
Current Events ◽  
Critical Media ◽  
The Media ◽  
Political Term ◽  
Relative Concept

In the post-truth era, information is harder to trust than ever before. News has become more about entertainment than information and consumers now subscribe to media in order to have their view reinforced and not challenged. The media environment has become more tribal, defining the people who consume it. On top of this environment, the plague that is fake news has descended upon the internet, making truth a relative concept rather than a scientific one. Navigating the media and finding truth in current events has become a confusing process. In the wake of the major events of 2016 – Brexit and the United States election, two events that were defined by misinformation, lies and fake news – post-truth emerged as a political term to define the era we now live in. It is one where truth is of little value and people give in to the politics of emotion rather than fact. This sets a dangerous scene for democracy and threatens to undermine any major future democratic processes. In order to alleviate this issue, a critical media literacy must be adopted in education. Students need to be given the tools to critically analyse media as well as understand the structures of power behind media organizations, what their goals are and who they serve. In doing so, fake news can lose much of its power and truth can emerge.

Die Programmierung des Vergessens - Massenmedien und Geschichtsbewußtsein

1987 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maximilian Gottschlich
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
National Socialism ◽  
The United States ◽  
Anti Semitism ◽  
Historical Processes ◽  
Current Events ◽  
The Media ◽  
Second Year ◽  
Public Reaction ◽  
Full Swing

SummaryThe election of Kurt Waldheim as Austrian Federal President in June 1986 as well as Austrian public reaction to western criticism, have made one thing clear: More than 40 years after the catastrophe of National Socialism, the mechanisms of forgetting and ignoring are still in full swing in Austria. Guilty for the collective inability to remember, the inability to realize Austria’s culpable involvement in the Nazi dictatorship and thus for the current neurosis, the growing anti-Semitism and anti-Americanism, are the silent Church, and particularly the political parties and the Austrian media. In the second year after Waldheim’s election - if one analyzes the structures of public communication in Austria - there is less talk than ever of dealing with history, enlightenment, or even “sad work”. Public opinion emphasizes chauvinism of the Alpine republic, hatred of Jews, and hostility toward the United States. In addition, basic media difficulties can be seen in handling the past, particularly the difficulty to make historical processes visible in the abundance of shots of current events, and the focusing of the media on what is going on here and now.

Conclusion

2020 ◽  
pp. 152-162
Author(s):  
Angèle Christin
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Moral Panic ◽  
The United States ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Digital Platforms ◽  
White House ◽  
News Websites ◽  
News Organizations ◽  
Media Ecosystem ◽  
The Media

This chapter explores the implications of web analytics for further studies of digital metrics beyond the case of journalism. At a time when nearly every domain is affected by analytics and algorithms, the chapter also provides an overview of what kinds of changes are to be expected and what should not be taken for granted whenever metrics take over. It describes how online media became a different place following the election of Donald Trump as the forty-fifth president of the United States in which news organizations and digital platforms entered into a political and economic maelstrom. It investigates the moral panic surrounding the uncovering of “content farms” and the stream of tweets from the White House labelling mainstream news organizations as “fake news” that caused the media ecosystem to become the center of new controversies about the future of information and democracy. The chapter also shows how news websites can bear some responsibility for problematic developments in journalism.

Media as an Educational System: Can the Media Help?

2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
David A. Hamburg ◽  
Beatrix A. Hamburg
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Action ◽  
The United States ◽  
Causal Link ◽  
Accurate Information ◽  
Violent Content ◽  
Violent Behaviors ◽  
The World ◽  
Current Events ◽  
The Media

The media, even in democratic societies, have been faulted for glorifying violence, especially in the entertainment industry. And we have seen how the harsh use of hateful propaganda through the media, by nationalist and sectarian leaders, can inflame conflicts in many parts of the world. The international community can support media that portray accurate information on current events, show constructive relations between different groups, and report instances in which violence has been prevented. Foundations, commissions, and universities can work with broadcasters to help provide responsible, insightful coverage of serious conflicts. For example, through constructive interactions with the Carnegie Commission on Preventing Deadly Conflict, CNN International moved to balance coverage of violence and strategies for peaceful conflict resolution. Social action for prosocial media may become an effective function of nongovernmental organizations, similar to their achievements in human rights. Research findings have established a causal link between children’s television viewing and their subsequent behavior in the United States and a variety of other countries (e.g., Australia, Finland, Israel, the Netherlands, Poland). Both aggressive and prosocial behaviors can be evoked, depending on the content of programs. There is no reason to assume that the impact of movies is substantially different. As early as age 2, children imitate behaviors (including violent behaviors) seen on television, and the effects may last into their teen years. Must violent content predominate forever? How can the media help to prevent deadly conflicts in the future? The proliferation of media in all forms constitutes an important aspect of globalization. Films, television, print, radio, and the Internet have immense power to reach people with powerful messages, for better and worse. At present, the United States is largely responsible for the output of film and television content seen by people worldwide. But advances in technology are making it increasingly feasible for media to be produced in all parts of the world—all too often with messages of hate, and they may become even more dangerous than the excessive violence in U.S. television and movies. Films have great, unused potential for encouraging peace and for nonviolent problem solving. They entertain, educate, and constitute a widely shared experience.

Clinton Visit to Mexico Focuses on Drug Control and Immigration Policies

1997 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 112-118
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Latin America ◽  
The United States ◽  
Drug Control ◽  
Immigration Policies ◽  
The People ◽  
The Media

President Clinton, ladies and gentlemen from the media from the United States and from Mexico, once again I would like to express the satisfaction of my government and the people of Mexico for the visit of President Clinton. We are truly very pleased that President Clinton is beginning his tour here in Latin America starting in Mexico. We are also especially pleased by the results of the work of the Mexico-U.S. Binational Commission and by the agreement that will be materialized today.

scholarly journals The American Reception and Settlement of Hungarian Refugees in 1956–1957

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 197-205
Author(s):  
Peter Pastor
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
The United States ◽  
High Educational Level ◽  
Melting Pot ◽  
The People ◽  
Us Government ◽  
Before And After ◽  
The Media ◽  
The One

In the wake of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, close to two hundred thousand Hungarians crossed into Austria.  About thirty thousand of these refugees were allowed to enter the United States. Their common experience of living under totalitarian communism and participating or being a witness to the exhilarating thirteen days of the revolution and their sudden, previously unplanned, departure from the homeland gave them a collective identity that was different from the one shared by the people of previous waves of Hungarian influx to the United States. The high educational level of the refugees attained before and after their arrival made their absorption into the mainstream relatively easy. The integration process was facilitated by the shaping of a positive image of the 1956 refugees by the US government and the media.  The reestablishment of the communist system in post-1956 Hungary contributed to the perception that, for the refugees in the United States, there was no hope for return to the homeland.  This assumption strengthened the attitudes of those who wished to embrace the American melting pot model.  Many of the 1956-ers in the United Sates, however, were also comfortable with the notion of ethnic pride and believed in the shaping of a dual national identity.

scholarly journals Respostas Populistas à Crise do Coronavírus: Análise dos Twitters de Donald Trump e Jair Bolsonaro

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 81-103
Author(s):  
Andressa Costa ◽  
◽  
Ana Bernardi ◽  
◽  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
The United States ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
International Media ◽  
The World ◽  
The Media ◽  
New Challenges

The coronavirus pandemic has suddenly and fast emerged, bringing new challenges on a global scale. Brazil and the United States have been for months the two countries with most cases and deaths by Covid-19 in the world, until India surpassed Brazil, and only on the number of cases. Therefore, there are similarities in the way their presidents have been dealing with the crisis. Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro have been in standout on international media by their poor leadership in face of the crises created by the pandemic. Both presidents have politicized the crisis, standing against scientific evidence and world recommendations. Contrary to social isolation, they have antagonized governors and mayors, intensifying conflicts despite the lost lives, disqualifying the media as fake news. Given that, this paper aims to analyse how the populist leaders, in Brazil and in the United States, have responded to the coronavirus crisis in terms of actions and discourses. For this purpose, we analyse tweets from both their official Twitter accounts, on the period from the first official recorded case until the milestone of 100 thousand deaths in each country.

Summaries

2018 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
Keyword(s):  
News Media ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
The United States ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
News Production ◽  
Media Attention ◽  
The Media ◽  
Media Hype ◽  
Insight Into

Bertijn van der Steenhoven The media coverage of fake news, a hype? This article provides insight into the intensified media attention for fake news in Dutch newspaper articles between May 2016 and April 2017 from the perspective of Vasterman’s (2005) theory of media hypes. It was found that speculations about the election of Donald Trump as president of the United States as a result of the spread of fake news caused a news wave. This news wave consists mainly of meta news and contains few news articles about the disclosure of fake news. The news production is mainly driven by meta news and by news about qualifications of the media as ‘fake news’. This article calls for further research into the media attention for fake news in other media than newspapers in the Netherlands as well as in other countries. Keywords: fake news, media hype, news wave, key event, hoax

Health Policy under Austerity Capitalism: The Impact of the “Tax Revolt”

1982 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 99-110
Author(s):  
Thomas S. Bodenheimer
Keyword(s):  
Social Services ◽  
The United States ◽  
Corporate Tax ◽  
Proposition 13 ◽  
The People ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Will ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Austerity Policy

The United States has moved from the postwar period of prosperity capitalism to the current era of austerity capitalism. Two pillars of austerity policy are cutbacks in social services, including health care, and a further shift in the tax burden from corporations onto individuals. The corporate-controlled media attempt to justify these austerity measures by insisting that the government cutbacks and corporate tax reductions represent the will of the people, as expressed by the “tax revolt” of Proposition 13 in California and Proposition 2½ in Massachusetts. This paper argues that the tax revolt is actually a protest against the massive shift in taxes away from corporations and onto individual taxpayers. In addition, the tax revolt is not a rejection of government services, as the media and politicians have maintained. In fact, the majority of Americans want more rather than less public services and want more rather than less taxes on large corporations.

scholarly journals The role of journalism in combating fake news: the case of the last day of the 2019 election campaign in Portugal

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tiago Lima Quintanilha ◽  
Gustavo Cardoso ◽  
Vania Baldi ◽  
Miguel Paisana
Keyword(s):  
Media Coverage ◽  
The United States ◽  
Parliamentary Election ◽  
Election Campaign ◽  
Fake News ◽  
The Media ◽  
Election Results ◽  
Zero Effect ◽  
The Impact

This article reflects on the role of journalism in the deconstruction of fake news propaganda that came out in the media on the last day of the 2019 parliamentary election campaign in Portugal. We collected news items carried by the Portuguese media and contextualised this media coverage with regard to the impact of disinformation on confidence in the news with the help of data collated as part of the Digital News Report project. We found that journalistic scrutiny, aided by the characteristics of the Portuguese media system, might have contributed to a zero effect of this fake news on the election results, unlike what happened in elections in other countries, such as the United States, United Kingdom and Brazil.

scholarly journals Hämähäkkimiehen seikkailut ”totuuden jälkeisessä” ajassa

2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 77-91
Author(s):  
Laura Antola
Keyword(s):  
Common Good ◽  
White Male ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Special Effects ◽  
The Public ◽  
Media Technologies ◽  
Alternative Facts ◽  
Current Events ◽  
The Media

Tarkastelen artikkelissani sitä, miten John Wattsin ohjaamassa elokuvassa Spider-Man: Far from Home (2019) käytetään supersankarielokuvalle tyypillisiä genrepiirteitä rakentamaan totuuden jälkeisen ajan diskurssia. Genrepiirteiden, joita ovat ainutlaatuinen sankarihahmo, korotettu realismi ja erikoistehosteet, avulla elokuvassa käsitellään mediavälitteisen sankaruuden, valeuutisten ja totuuden jälkeisen ajan teemoja. Sekä elokuvan juoni että teemat liittyvät media- ja esitysteknologioihin, mikä tekee elokuvasta kiinnostavan tutkimuskohteen mediavälitteisten tarinoiden ja valemedian analysoimiseen. Marvelin supersankarielokuvat ovat kuluneen kymmenen vuoden aikana nousseet maailman tuottoisimmaksi elokuvasarjaksi. Niissä näyttävät erikoistehosteet yhdistyvät realistisiin elementteihin, ja monet supersankarielokuvat kommentoivat yhteiskunnan tapahtumia. Far from Homessa nykyajan tunnistettava teinikulttuuri, joka pyörii mobiililaitteiden ja sosiaalisen median ympärillä, on yksi elokuvan tavoista tuoda fantastiseen tarinaan realismin piirteitä. Elokuvan antagonisti, yleisön huomiota janoava versio vihaisesta valkoisesta miehestä, käyttää mediaa hyväkseen luodakseen itsestään kuvan ainutlaatuisena sankarina, joka pystyy vastaamaan maapalloa kohtaavaan uuteen uhkaan. Valheet ja totuuden muuntelu yhdistetään elokuvassa mediateknologioihin ja erikoistehosteiden käytöllä korostetaan valheellisuutta ja totuuden muuntelua. Supersankarielokuvan genrepiirteet ovat keskeinen väline, jonka avulla elokuva osallistuu totuuden jälkeisen ajan diskurssin tuottamiseen. Pyyteetön, totuudenmukainen päähenkilö taistelee yhteisen hyvän puolesta, tarina tapahtuu meidän maailmaamme muistuttavassa korotetun realismin maailmassa ja media välittää erikoistehosteilla tuotettuja valeuutisia yleisöille.   Adventures of Spider-Man in a post-truth era: Generic conventions of superhero films in building a discourse   In this article, I analyse how generic conventions of superhero films are used in John Watts’ Spider-Man: Far from Home (2019) to build the discourse of a post-truth era. The film uses these generic conventions, including an exceptional hero, heightened realism, and special effects, to discuss the themes of mediated heroism, fake news, and a post-truth era. Both the plot and themes of the film revolve around media technologies, granting an interesting point of view to the analysis of mediated storytelling and fake media. In the past decade, Marvel’s superhero films have become the highest grossing media franchise of all time. The films combine fantastic special effects and realistic elements, and many superhero films comment on current events and the society. In Far from Home, realism is presented through e.g. the representation of current teenage culture, revolving around mobile devices and social media. The film’s antagonist is an attention-seeking version of the “angry white male” trope, who uses media to create an image of himself as a hero with exceptional abilities to stop a new threat facing the world. Lies and altering the truth are connected to media technologies in the film’s narrative, and the use of special effects highlights deceitfulness and alternative facts. Generic conventions of superhero films are central in how the film constructs the discourse of a post-truth era: an altruistic hero fighting for the common good in a world reminiscent of our own, with the media spreading fake news created by special effects to the public.

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