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After the Fact? The Truth About Fake News
Why do we no longer trust facts, experts and statistics? In this essential guide to the turbulent times in which we live, Marcus Gilroy-Ware investigates our era of post-truths and fake news and answers the question of where we can go from here.
We are supposed to have more information at our disposal now than at any time in history. So why, in a world of rising sea levels, populist leaders, resurgent fascism and a global pandemic, do so many people believe bizarre and untrue things about the world we live in?
In After the Fact? , Marcus Gilroy-Ware shows us what really created the conditions for mis- and disinformation, from fake news and conspiracy theories, to bullshit journalism and the resurgence of the far-right, and why liberal newspaper columnists and centrist politicians are unable to turn back this tide.
Spanning politics, culture, psychology, journalism, and much more, After the Fact? is a timely wake-up call for those who believe we can simply go "back to normal", and instead argues that, if we are to put an end to "fake news" we must deal with the broader social crises that are responsible for it.
We are supposed to have more information at our disposal now than at any time in history. So why, in a world of rising sea levels, populist leaders, resurgent fascism and a global pandemic, do so many people believe bizarre and untrue things about the world we live in?
In After the Fact? , Marcus Gilroy-Ware shows us what really created the conditions for mis- and disinformation, from fake news and conspiracy theories, to bullshit journalism and the resurgence of the far-right, and why liberal newspaper columnists and centrist politicians are unable to turn back this tide.
Spanning politics, culture, psychology, journalism, and much more, After the Fact? is a timely wake-up call for those who believe we can simply go "back to normal", and instead argues that, if we are to put an end to "fake news" we must deal with the broader social crises that are responsible for it.
360 pages, Paperback
First published November 10, 2020
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285 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
May 22, 2021
Reading After the Fact is, in several ways, like watching an Adam Curtis documentary: similar topics arise, like conspiracy and technology; both present a compelling history of social and political disjunction; at their best, events are juxtaposed in novel ways, creating an exhilirating sense of jamais-vu.
The comparison isn't total, however, as Gilroy-Ware does a number of things differently (and sometimes better). Curtis usually sticks to the descriptive and historical, whereas Gilroy-Ware complements strong storytelling with a richer theoretical knowledge and compelling arguments.
Some or much of the content will be familiar to those, especially on the left, who have followed British and American politics, and this includes parts of the book's analysis. Yet Gilroy-Ware has a knack for taking such events and discourse and either taking them a step further or entirely reshaping them.
The comparison isn't total, however, as Gilroy-Ware does a number of things differently (and sometimes better). Curtis usually sticks to the descriptive and historical, whereas Gilroy-Ware complements strong storytelling with a richer theoretical knowledge and compelling arguments.
Some or much of the content will be familiar to those, especially on the left, who have followed British and American politics, and this includes parts of the book's analysis. Yet Gilroy-Ware has a knack for taking such events and discourse and either taking them a step further or entirely reshaping them.
December 17, 2022
This is a fine exemplar of the fashionable new genre of "anyone I don't like is a nazi". It keeps saying that "we must engage with those illiterate buffoons engaging in wrong think without patronising them as the simpletons they are in order to fix their opinions". I hope that one day the author will become self-aware and be at least a little embarrassed. The rest is a load of platitudes about truth, journalism and how capitalism contains the seeds of its own destruction and inevitable embrace of glorious automated luxury communism.
February 19, 2021
Provocative, sprawling arguments.
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August 22, 2024Interesting and good at being thought provoking, but the overall analysis leaves a lot to be desired, in my opinion.
Does not make any attempt to be unbiased and all examples of wrongdoing or criticism are of one side of the political spectrum.
Does not make any attempt to be unbiased and all examples of wrongdoing or criticism are of one side of the political spectrum.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews