In this book, the Glasgow University Meda Group bring their innovative and forensic three-dimensional methodological approach to understanding the role of media in shaping Britain’s cost of living crisis. In the context of neoliberal austerity, welfare cuts and the corporate capture of media platforms, itprovides evidence ofan increasing disconnect between the narratives promoted by the mainstream media and the interests, priorities and lived experiences of audiences – whilst charting the ...

This book presents a new conceptual model for understanding the role of the media in the construction of public knowledge, belief and opinion in the context of a radically changed communications infrastructure. Drawing on a series of empirical studies conducted over nearly a decade, Happer deploys evidence of a ‘disconnect’ between neoliberal media and the public which is rooted in a disaffection with a mainstream political culture which has failed to deliver the societal outcomes promised...

This book, drawing on new research conducted for the UK Energy Resource Centre (UKERC), examines the contemporary public debate on climate change and the linked issue of energy security. It analyses the key processes which affect the formation of public attitudes and understanding in these areas, while also developing a completely new method for analysing these processes. The authors address fundamental questions about how to adequately inform the public and develop policy in areas of grea...

The election of Donald Trump as US President in 2016 seemed to catch the world napping. Like the vote for Brexit in the UK, there seemed to be a new de-synchronicity – a huge reality gap – between the unfolding of history and the mainstream news media’s interpretations of and reporting of contemporary events. Through a series of short, sharp interventions from academics and journalists, this book interrogates the emergent media war around Donald Trump. A series of interconnected themes are...

The Sunday Times bestseller.'A compulsively readable, carefully researched account of how a malignant combination of rightwing ideology, secretive money (much of it from the US) and weaponisation of social media have shaped contemporary British (and to a limited extent, European) politics... Remarkable' Observer, Book of the WeekDemocracy is in crisis, and unaccountable and untraceable flows of money are helping to destroy it.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the Pulitzer Prize–winning critic comes an impassioned critique of America’s retreat from reasonWe live in a time when the very idea of objective truth is mocked and discounted by the occupants of the White House. Discredited conspiracy theories and ideologies have resurfaced, proven science is once more up for debate, and Russian propaganda floods our screens. The wisdom of the crowd has usurped research and expertise, and...

An "insightful and harrowing" analysis of the state of Western-style democracy by the Financial Times columnist and author of Time to Start Thinking ( The New York Times).In his widely acclaimed book Time to Start Thinking, Financial Times columnist Edward Luce charted the course of America's economic and geopolitical decline, proving to be a prescient voice on the state of the nation.In The Retreat of Western ...

We are living in a world where “alternative facts” replace actual facts—and where feelings have more weight than evidence. But how did we get here?In this volume in the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series, Lee McIntyre traces the development of the post-truth phenomenon from science denial through the rise of “fake news,” from our psychological blind spots to the public's retreat into “information silos.”What, exactly, is post-truth? Is it wishful thinking...

From fringe conspiracy theories to 'alternative facts', a timely look at how we arrived in the 'fake news' era.Would your younger self believe the news of today? An entire city block blown up by a suicide bomber on Christmas Day because he believed phone towers spread disease. A Representative elected to the US Congress on a platform that Democrats are secretly harvesting an anti-aging chemical from the blood of abused children. Angry rioters in furs and horns over...

This must-read new book maps New Zealand's alt-right underworld and unearths the roots of the occupation that ended in a violent protest on the grounds of Parliament.Speaking after the chaos of the protest that stopped the nation, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told a press conference, 'One day, it will be our job to try and understand how a group of people could succumb to such wild and dangerous mis- and disinformation.'That day isn't in the future. Mis- a...

Welcome to the Post-Truth era— a time in which the art of the lie is shaking the very foundations of democracy and the world as we know it. The Brexit vote; Donald Trump’s victory; the rejection of climate change science; the vilification of immigrants; all have been based on the power to evoke feelings and not facts. So what does it all mean and how can we champion truth in in a time of lies and ‘alternative facts’?In this eye-opening and timely book, Post-Truth is distinguished f...

A society that isn’t sure what’s true can’t function, but increasingly we no longer seem to know who or what to believe. We’re barraged by a torrent of lies, half-truths and propaganda: how do we even identify good journalism any more?At a moment of existential crisis for the news industry, in our age of information chaos, News and How to Use It shows us how. From Bias to Snopes, from Clickbait to TL;DR, and from Fact-Checkers to the Lamestream Media, here is a definitive ...