doxa.comunicación | nº 27, pp. 421-428 | 421
July-December of 2018
ISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978
Beliefs, post-truth and politics1
Creencias, posverdad y política
1 This work is part of the Program of Activities on Digital Vulnerability (PROVULDIG-CM), reference S2015/HUM-3434, co-financed by the Autonomous Region of Madrid and the European Social Fund (ESF). It is also part of the research carried out by the author in the Department of Sociology of the University of Cambridge (United Kingdom), funded by the Program of Grants for International Mobility of Professors and Senior Researchers of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports, reference PRX16 / 00612.
Abstract:
This text presents the preliminary ideas of an investigation in progress related to the influence of personal beliefs in shaping public opinion and its relationship to politics within contexts dominated by post-truth. The political events of 2016 (Brexit and the victory of Donald Trump) have demonstrated the vulnerability of our democracies with regard to biased and malicious political communications. The post-truth era has revealed the ability of passionate political discourse (based on pathos) to ravage rational political speech (based on logos).
Keywords:
Beliefs, cognitive dissonance, post-truth, political discourse.
Resumen:
El presente texto avanza las ideas preliminares de una investiga-ción en desarrollo sobre la influencia de las creencias personales en la formación de la opinión pública y su relación con la política en contextos dominados por la posverdad. Los acontecimientos políticos de 2016 (el Brexit y la victoria de Donald Trump) han evidenciado la vulnerabilidad de nuestras democracias frente a la comunicación política sesgada y malintencionada. La era de la posverdad ha reve-lado la capacidad del discurso político pasional (basado en el pathos) para arrasar con el discurso político racional (basado en el logos).
Palabras clave:
Creencias, disonancia cognitiva, posverdad, discurso político
How to cite this article:
Blanco Alfonso, I. (2018). Beliefs, post-truth and politics. Doxa Comunicación, 27, pp. 421-428.
https://doi.org/10.31921/doxacom.n27a20
Ignacio Blanco Alfonso. Professor of Journalism at University CEU San Pablo. He obtained his PhD with a thesis on the journalistic work of José Ortega y Gasset (Extraordinary Doctorate Award, 2003). Specialist in the critical thinking and works of the Madrid philosopher, he was part of the team that researched and edited the philos-opher’s Complete Works. In 2008, he set up the Master Degree Program in Cultural Journalism, the first official postgraduate degree at a Spanish university specializing in cultural journalism. At present, Professor Blanco is the Principal Researcher of PROVULDIG, a project funded by Regional Government of Madrid and European Union to create a network of researchers from various Spanish universities to develop activities on digital vulnerability.
