Disrupting Democracy? Disinformation Roots and Reach in a Post-Truth World

Abstract

A well-informed citizenry is widely considered to be vital to the proper functioning of a democracy. Democratic societies thrive when citizens can actively and critically engage with new ideas, developments, and claims to truth. In most Western democracies, the news media has traditionally performed the role of mediator, defining the contours of political discourse and through it the “social production of meaning.” A free and independent press is thus widely believed to be one of democracy’s most important institutions, helping citizens to have an informed voice in the democratic process. However, disinformation – false information deliberately and often covertly spread in order to influence public opinion or obscure the truth – has disrupted the news media’s ability to perform this important function. Many scholars and experts initially pointed to social media as the driver of America’s ongoing “disinformation.” However, more recent emerging scholarship moves beyond a narrow obsession with technology in explaining and addressing disinformation. This thesis argues that the environment in which contemporary, largely digital, disinformation has arisen and operates is one of a larger “crisis of public communication” – a “disinformation order” that has been developing for much longer than the current breed of digital disinformation. However, Donald Trump’s controversial and unorthodox 2016 presidential campaign and subsequent election served as an inflection point in America’s understanding and appreciation of disinformation’s influence in the public sphere. We are now entering a post-truth world – one in which “objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion.” As declining trust in media institutions pushes us further and further into such a world, it becomes necessary to better understand the types of information flows that flourish in a post-truth environment. The success of Donald Trump’s unprecedented 2016 presidential campaign suggests that political communication has, and will continue to be, affected by this changing communication ecosystem.