Dictating Reality: The Global Battle to Control the News

by Martin Moore, Thomas Colley

From the United States to China and from Brazil to India, an authoritarian approach to news is spreading across the world. Increasingly, the media is no longer a check on power or a source of objective information but a means by which governments and leaders can propagate their versions of reality, however biased or false.

Martin Moore and Thomas Colley show how states are battling to control and shape the news in order to entrench their power, evade scrutiny, and ensure that their political narratives are accepted. Combining in-depth analyses of seven countries with a compelling range of stories and characters from around the world, they demonstrate the unprecedented scale and scope of governments’ efforts to take control of the media. Dictating Reality details how Xi’s China, Putin’s Russia, Modi’s India, AMLO’s Mexico, Bolsonaro’s Brazil, and Orban’s Hungary have all sought, in their different ways, to exploit news to manufacture alternative realities—and how their methods have taken hold in the United States, the United Kingdom, and other democracies. Combining keen analysis of contemporary world events with years of original research, this book is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand how authoritarian leaders use the media, why more and more people are living in different realities, and the ways democracy is under threat.

365 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 28, 2025

Reviews

[Kuu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

This book was super interesting, and especially as I am currently reading Jacob Siegel's "The Information State", I feel like I really got the most out of this book, as the two work together quite well in providing a rounded picture of the ways in which media is used as a state tool. This book was more the case-study side of things, which was definitely very interesting, as it showed how different states use different tactics in order to control public opinion, and how each of these strategies works in the given context.

I was glad to see that the authors were fairly objective, though sometimes, specific biases did shine through a bit (as an example, in the Russia chapter, the Russian view that the USA are trying to negatively interact with Russian politics and contain Russia, encroach on its "sphere of influence", etc. were implied to be Russian propaganda ONLY, instead of exploring the grain of truth that exists in these statements, which I feel would have allowed for a stronger analysis).

Generally, this was a good and very informative read, and I am glad I got access through NetGalley.

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a pleasure. And what frustration ...!

I always knew this would happen in my lifetime. We humans go through cycles. Our evolutionary history doesn't allow any different. That doesn't make it any more palatable.

The authors trace how authoritarianism is spread through the control of information by the powers that be across several national and cultural contexts. I made so many notes about how clear they are. This is such an accessible text. You can't pretend not to understand the point.

Some ideas that caught my attention:
・The notion of "narrative reality" as an alternative to fact-based, empirical reality (via Jerome Bruner)
・How powerful nations like Russia make claims of nations they are attacking, like Ukraine, that amount to what they themselves are perpetrating ... an infantile deflection mechanism that works only too well ... ultimately a form of "whoever smelt it, dealt it"
・Even worse, following up with white knight "we'll save you from yourself" rhetoric
・How cheap and easy it is to "buy voices within social media, which have the benefit of sounding like authentically held personal views" ... this is it ... this is one of the major ways in which we're duped because of our simple evolutionary ancestry being flummoxed in the digital age
・Hannah Arendt! "... the result of repeated political lying is not necessarily that lies end up replacing the truth. Rather, that people distrust the truth of any statement" ... and that's exactly where we're at now, aren't we? With the bonus of also being in the believable generative AI age
・"... when it comes to politics, most people believe what they choose to believe, regardless of the evidence" ... only politics? Isn't that what nearly everyone does? Including academics who can't accept their colleagues' work because it disrupts their worldview?
・On Vance: "... promoting his overarching strategic narrative that immigrants are harming America was sufficient moral justification to just make stories up." Let's remember that Vance is married to someone who is the daughter of immigrants.

I'm going to take the lazy way out and sum it all up with this final quote, drawn from Peter Oborne: "[News outlets] 'say goodbye to the truth' because their version of reality is dictated by political fealty first and objective reality second." Information is crumbling, and the institutions that helped bring us the closest approximation to the truth are in arrears and politically encumbered. What remains a gap is how to get out of this situation. The authors suggest several high-level actions, like regaining respect for knowledge and how we build it, but it's not clear how we go about doing that in the here and now. That's not their job, though. First, convince people of the problem. I hope this text does that.

Thank you to NetGalley and Columbia University Press for the advance copy.

[Daniela · Rating 5 out of 5]

Moore and Collet dig deep into the meaning of controlling the narratives, especially for autocratic regimes. Pointing out e.g. Russia, which pushes narrative across old social media channels, and thus tries to form international opinions, while at the same time putting brute force into controlling internal media and opinions. Or China, in which the communist party tries to control all narratives and all media to ensure solely positive news coverage at the same time trying to push this coverage outside. Hungary’s Victor Orban and his Fidesz party trying to denounce western influences on negative news coverage about Hungarians ruling elite with a mostly antisemitic campaign. And pushing to make the Hungarian government the highest advertiser in the country to push right wing narratives. … and also Indias Godi Media phenomenon, Bolzonaros smear campaigns against critics, and Mexico’s AMLO media campaign,
They all have one thing in common: the importance of controlling the media for the authoritarian governments of those states. It’s super informative and gives a good impression but also one that’s shocking especially when it comes to them trying to control not only national but also international narratives and opinions. This book is definitely a must eat for everyone, not only those who already suspect auto presses to use communication and the media to lie to everyone within their country and in the world.

[Ula Tardigrade · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thorough and timely analysis of the different ways in which governments around the world are hijacking media to promote their agenda. It looks not only on the most familiar examples, like Russia and China, but also less well known, like Hungary or Brazil. It is a work of academia, but it is accessible and well written.

Thanks to the publisher, Columbia University Press, and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book.

[Debbie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really important book. Very detailed research and analysis using different country examples to explain how authoritarian leaders are controlling the information narrative. These leaders are seeking to ‘ replace verified truth with authorative truth’. Clear recommendations of work to do for democracies. Excellent, great read. Thank you to the authors. Thank you to #netgalley and the publisher for an ARC.