Academic Debates on Post-Truth in Online Social Media Era
Keywords:
post-truth, social media, algorithms, post-humanism, infrastructureAbstract
Since 2016, social media has been dominated by post-truth, defined as relating to circumstances in which public opinion is influenced by emotion and personal belief more than objective facts. It has become a matter of concern in social sciences and humanities, especially in the field of communication studies. The purpose of this article is to investigate academic arguments on social media post-truth. Various perspectives reveal that the rise of social media has shaped the post-truth environment, resulting in post-truth politics and skepticism of expert knowledge. Changing the information environment, establishing an enclosed space for like-minded people, manipulating people's perceptions using algorithms, and commercial social media's business model that benefits from attracting people's attention are all conditions involved. The article points out that this phenomenon reflects the complex relationship between technology, human beings and social life. Therefore, there can be no binary opposition between humans and non-humans. Technological or social determinism should not be the exclusive explanation for the phenomena. According to the article, infrastructure studies might be an approach to better comprehend post-truth in the digital era as a result of materiality, human, and technology assemblages.
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