Inequality in the Public Sphere

Piras, Elisa

doi:10.4324/9781003037385-4

Cited by 1 publication

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“…The idea that the legacy media holds itself to the highest standards of objectivity itself reflects a ‘racial amnesia’ that ‘we once lived in an era of unproblematic truth’ that benefitted everyone equally (Mejia et al, 2018: 113). Disinformation regarding women, racialised and LGBTQ+ people has, therefore, long underpinned political projects of exclusion from the public sphere, through which powerful actors seek to preserve the status quo (Piras, 2020: 33). In the UK context, tabloid newspapers in particular produced ‘news of dubious civic value’ well before the social media age (Chadwick et al, 2018: 4259).…”

Section: Post-truth Online Abuse and Bordering Over Expertisementioning

confidence: 99%

Post-truth politics as discursive violence: Online abuse, the public sphere and the figure of ‘the expert’

Galpin,

Vernon

2023

The British Journal of Politics and International Relations

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‘Post-truth politics’ indicates a contemporary state of public distrust around the legitimacy of knowledge, shaped by the hybrid media landscape. In the present moment, women, LGBTQ+ and racialised individuals also receive unprecedented levels of online abuse. Scholars have attributed responsibility for disinformation to social media and linked post-truth discourse to angry accusations of lying and dishonesty. Yet, online abuse of experts/academics has not been conceptually or empirically connected to post-truth. We analyse Facebook comments on right-wing news articles that question the expertise of academics during Brexit. Using queer theory, we argue that online abuse of experts staged by newspapers is a form of post-truth communication involving a process of bordering through which gendered, sexualised or racialised bodies are considered incompatible with academic expertise. This process legitimises extraordinary abuse including threats of sexual violence. Only by asking intentional questions about gender, sexuality and race can we fully understand the post-truth condition.

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Section: Post-truth Online Abuse and Bordering Over Expertisementioning

confidence: 99%