Fact and Propaganda in the Age of Digital Reproduction

In this program we will adopt Timothy Snyder’s provocative quip that “post-truth is pre-fascism” as a frame to investigate the phenomenon of “post-truth”. We will investigate many aspects of post-truth, from fake news to theories that challenge traditional conceptions of “facts” and of truth itself. The term post-truth is quite recent, but the condition it describes arguably long predates its newest name. We’ll spend time focusing on the current moment, investigating what is new in the digital age, but also dig into the history of propaganda and misinformation. We’ll spend a couple of weeks on the political economy of media in order to understand some of the deeper forces shaping our discourse, and throughout we will consider whether post-truth is a signal of, or even a progenitor to, fascism.