Disinformation Society, communication and cosmopolitan democracy

Abstract

This paper argues that ‘fake news’ is endemic to ‘information society’ as a whole, not just the internet or news media. It is part of daily experience, generated by established patterns of communication, social group categorisation, framing, and patterns of power. These disruptions are intensified though interacting with the dynamics of information capitalism, which values strategic effectiveness more than accuracy. Assuming democratic cosmopolitan society must have good communication, this paper explores the factors which produce obstacles to such communicative processes, as the patterns which support bad communication and disinformation must be understood before they can be dealt with.

“Imbecilization” in the disinformation society: what can information literacy do about it?

“…Knowing that human relations are inherently political, involving power relations whose objective is to persuade other people to act, obey, maintain the relationship or think in a particular way (Marshall, 2017), the main thing is to be attentive to ambivalent circumstances in order to develop attitudes, skills, and abilities to mitigate existing information manipulation.…”

The digital age and its discontents

“…), undermining the credibility of democratic ideals and revitalizing ideologies of fear. Notions such as those of 'disinformation society' (Marshall, 2017) and 'surveillance capitalism' (Zuboff, 2019) describe the fundamental crisis new communication technologies have brought about in the relationship between capitalism and democracy. They describe the condition of a capitalism that is ultimately devouring itself, in which the state and the corporation cannot handle the instability and openness (once a fundamental condition for prosperity and capital accumulation) of a digital world of their own making.…”

Alternative Facts, Fake News, Conflicting Perceptions, & Their Relevance to Library and Information Professionals

“…It is possible but unproductive to lump trolls of the left and right together. Analyses of the relevant literature indicate that the influence of the nonfactual claims created and/or disseminated by the alt right seems to be more influential than that of the alt left in both American and European contexts (Bennett and Livingston;Marshall 2017).…”