‘Post Truth’ Politics: The New Threat to Democracy

Authors

  • Allison Fettes Simon Fraser University

Keywords:

post-truth politics, communication, politics

Abstract

On Tuesday, November 8, 2016, the United States elected Donald Trump, a reality TV business mogul, over Hillary Clinton, the former United States Secretary of State, as their 45thPresident. The impact of this election has been felt across the globe due to the bizarre campaigning of both Clinton and Trump including accusations of illegal activity, and frequent outright lies communicated to the public through candidate speeches, social media, and news agencies. It seems that the rise of populist voting activity and, what has been dubbed ‘post-truth’ politics played a significant role in Trump’s win. By looking at the semiotic aspect of political communication, political marketing, and the idea of ‘illusory democracy’, I argue that ‘post-truth’ politics are a threat to western democracy. 

Author Biography

Allison Fettes, Simon Fraser University

School of Communications

References

Alboim, E. (2011). On the verge of total dysfunction: Government, media and communications. In D. Taras, & C. Waddell (Eds.), How Canadians Communicate IV: Media and Politics (pp. 45-54). Edmonton: Athabasca University.

Atkin, A. (2006). Peirce's theory of signs. In E. N. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2013 ed.). Stanford University: Metaphysics Research Lab.

Azari, J. R. (2016). How the news media helped to nominate trump. Political Communication, 33(4), 677-680. doi:10.1080/10584609.2016.1224417

Davis, A. (2010). The ‘crisis” of politics and communication in aging democracies. Political Theory and Social Thought (pp. 146-158). London: Routledge.

Dufresne, Y., & Marland, A. (2012). The Canadian political market and rules of the game. Communication, Strategy, and Politics: Political Marketing in Canada (pp. 22-39). Vancouver: UBC Press.

Fish, W. (2016). 'Post-truth' politics and illusory democracy. Psychotherapy & Politics International, 14(3), 211-213. doi:10.1002/ppi.1387

Giasson, T., Lees-Marshment, J., & Marland, A. (2012). Introducing political marketing. Communication, Strategy, and Politics: Political Marketing in Canada (pp. 3-21). Vancouver: UBC Press.

Heyes, C. (2002). Identity politics. In E. N. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2016 ed.). Stanford University: Metaphysics Research Lab.

Holan, A. D., & Qiu, L. (2015). 2015 lie of the year: The campaign misstatements of donald trump. Retrieved from http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2015/dec/21/2015-lie-year-donald-trump-campaign-misstatements/

Maddalena, G. (2016). Political communication in the (iconic) Trump epoch. European View, 10(18), 1-8. doi:10.1007/s12290-016-0403-9

Parmar, I. (2012). US presidential election 2012: Post-truth politics. Political Insight, 3(2), 4-7. doi:10.1111/j.2041-9066.2012.00103.x

Rubin, K., & Kozolanka, K. (2014). Managing information: Too much publicity, not enough public discourse. In K. Kozolanka (Ed.), Publicity and the Canadian State: Critical Communications Perspectives (pp. 195-214). Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Small, T. (2012). E-ttack politics: Negativity, the internet, and canadian political parties. In D. Taras, & C. Waddell (Eds.), How Canadians Communicate IV: Media and Politics (pp. 169-188). Edmonton: Athabasca University.

Small, T., Giasson, T., & Marland, A. (2014). Chapter 1: The triangulation of canadian political communication. In T. Small, T. Giasson & A. Marland (Eds.), Political Communication in Canada: Meet the press and tweet the rest (pp. 3-23). Vancouver: UBC Press.

Smith, M. (2014). The role of social movements and interest groups. In K. Kozolanka (Ed.), Publicity and the Canadian State: Critical Communications Perspectives (pp. 262-280). Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Spruyt, B., Keppens, G., & Van Droogenbroeck, F. (2016). Who supports populism and what attracts people to it? Political Research Quarterly, 69(2), 335-346. doi:10.1177/1065912916639138

Stein, L. (2016). Trump U; love him or hate him, marketers can learn a thing or two from trump. Advertising Age, 87(5), 12.

Suiter, J. (2016). Post-truth politics. Political Insight, 7(3), 25-27. doi:10.1177/2041905816680417

Taras, D. (2012). The past and future of political communication in canada: An introduction. In D. Taras, & C. Waddell (Eds.), How canadians communicate IV: Media and politics (pp. 1-24). Edmonton: AU Press.

Published

2020-09-15

Issue

Vol. 5 No. 1 (2020)

Section

Articles

License


Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

  1. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
  2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
  3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).