Post-Truth Populism : A New Political Paradigm / Saul Newman.

Intro -- Contents -- Notes on Contributors -- Introduction -- Approach, Methodology, and Structure -- Chapter Outline -- Debating PTP -- Political Communications and the Media -- Counterknowledge and Conspiracy Theories -- PTP and Democracy -- References -- Debating PTP -- Post-truth Politics and Epistemic Populism: About (Dis-)Trusted Presentation and Communication of Facts, Not False Information -- Introduction -- Post-truth Politics, Mediation, and Trust -- Public Truth/Facts vs Scientific and Mathematical, or Rational Truth -- Trust, Mediation, and Publicly Accepted Facts -- Populism and Post-truth Politics -- Post-truth’s (and Most Populisms’) Cultural Infrastructures -- The Ideational Concept’s Epistemic Traps -- Risk 1 Elite/People Fiction -- Risk 2 Rigid People/Elite Binary Is Conceptually Misleading -- Political Consulting: Elite Models of Epistemic Populism -- Epistemic Populism -- Epistemic Populism’s ‘Informationalization’ of Populist Rhetoric -- Populist Forms, Trust, and Public Truth -- Conclusion -- References -- Nostalgic Post-truth: Towards an Anti-humanist Theory of Communication -- Introduction -- Nostalgic Post-truth and Epochal Shifts -- Why (Post-)Truth Is Not What It Seems -- The Tragic Nature of Truth and Politics -- Conclusion -- Bibliography -- (Anti-)Populism and Post-truth -- Introduction -- Populism, Anti-populism, Populist Hype -- Discourses About ‘Post-truth Populism’ -- Truth and Lies -- Reason and Rationality vs. Emotions and Ignorance -- Against Science -- Expert Discourse, Epistemic Position, Knowledge Production -- Beyond Cause and Effect -- Conclusion -- Bibliography -- Political Communications and the Media -- The Epistemic Dimension of Populist Communication: Can Exposure to Populist Communication Spark Factual Relativism? -- Introduction -- Theoretical Framework -- Conceptualizing Epistemic Populism -- Epistemic Populism and Factual Relativism -- Study 1: The Exploration of Epistemic Populism on Breitbart -- Methods -- Findings of Study 1 -- Quoting Public Opinion and the People’s Feelings to Delegitimize the Opposition -- Logical Fallacies and Selective Quoting of Evidence -- Delegitimizing Conventional Knowledge and the Mainstream Media -- Partisan Truth Claims -- Exclusionist Reality Constructions -- Conclusion of Study 1 -- Study 2: Experimental Evidence on the Effects of Epistemic Populism -- Methods of Study 2 -- Findings of Study 2 -- Overall Discussion -- Appendix 1: Stimulus Materials -- References -- Refusing to Be Silenced: Critical Journalism, Populism and the Post-truth Condition -- Introduction -- Background -- Aim and Research Questions -- Methodological Approach -- Organization of the Chapter -- Post-truth Politics and the Populist Assault on Mainstream Journalism -- Journalists’ Experiences of Physical and Verbal Abuse and Intimidation -- Details of the Interviews -- Discussion: Silencing the Voice of Mainstream Journalism? -- Conclusion -- Appendix 1: Interview Guide -- References -- Counterknowledge and Conspiracy Theories -- ‘The First in the Service of Truth’: Construction of Counterknowledge Claims and the Case of Janša's SDS’ Media Outlets -- Introduction -- Post-truth Discourse/Discourse on Post-truth -- Understanding (Post)-truth -- Populism and the Truth Game -- The Janša Paradox and Slovenian Democratic Party -- Research Strategy -- Method and Materials -- Initial Findings -- Analysing Post-truth Discourse -- Fake Media Frame -- Fake Media Sub-frame -- Fake International Media Sub-frame -- Export of Fake News Sub-frame -- Fake Institutions Frame -- Quasi-independent Institutions and Experts Sub-frame -- Truth Washing Frame -- Legitimacy Washing Sub-frame -- Minority Washing Sub-frame -- Nazi Washing Sub-frame -- Antivaccine Sub-frame -- Dominant Ideology and Structures Frame -- Communist Legacy Sub-frame -- Fake Liberalism Sub-frame -- Discussion and Conclusion -- Bibliography -- Three-Step Rhetorical Model of Conspiratorial Populism -- Introduction -- The Weaponisation of Conspiracy Theories -- The Eurabia Conspiracy Theory -- The Deep State Conspiracy Theory -- Anti-Western Conspiracy Theories -- Conspiratorial Populism -- The Politics of Disinformation -- Danger and Extremism -- Weaponisation from the Top -- Non-conspiratorial and Conspiratorial Forms -- The Three-Step Rhetoric -- First Step -- Second Step -- Third Step -- Leading to Violence -- References -- PTP and Democracy -- Populisms in Democracies Under the Post-truth Pressure: Giving New Life to Public Debate or Blurring It? -- Introduction -- Exploring the Populist Vision of Democracy -- Post-truth Regimes? Facts, Knowledge, and Public Debate in Democracy -- Facts and Opinion in Democratic Politics -- The Epistemic Content of Democracies -- Digital and Cultural Changes and the Rise of Populisms -- Conclusion -- Bibliography -- New Turn Populism: Ideological or Epistemic? An Inquiry into Explanatory Models of Populism and the Meaning of ‘Post-truth’ -- New Turn Populism, Post-truth and Ideological Analysis -- Reading NTP Ideologically -- Political-Conversational Legibility and NTP Politics -- An Epistemic/Post-epistemic Domain Theory of Political Talk -- Political Theory and Political Talk -- Etymological Populism and ‘True’ Peoples -- Conclusion: Four Approaches to the World of NTP -- References -- Populist Democracy and the Post-truth Condition -- Introduction -- Populism and Post-Truth: The Intermingling Narratives -- Truth Revisited in Mini-Publics -- Populism and Liberal Indifference -- Does Democracy Need Saving? -- Conclusion -- References -- Conclusion -- Conclusions: ‘Mainstream’ Alarmism or ‘Critical’ Complacency? How to Approach Post-truth Populism -- A Critique of ‘Mainstream’ Approaches to Post-truth Populism -- An Alarmist Approach to Post-truth Populism? -- A Middle-Ground Position? -- Post-truth Populism: Towards a New Political Paradigm? -- References -- Index.

This open access book analyses the convergence between 'post-truth' political culture and the politics of populism. The premise is that there is an intrinsic link between post-truth discourse (referring to mis/disinformation, 'alternative facts', 'fake news', conspiracy theories and the general distrust of expert knowledge and official sources of information) and the central narrative of populism, which opposes the 'common sense' wisdom of ordinary honest people to the 'expert knowledge' of duplicitous technocratic elites. The book investigates the current post-truth phenomenon as a distinct feature of contemporary political life, and the specific ways in which it intersects with the resurgence of populism. While there has been a considerable literature on both post-truth and populism, they are largely treated as separate phenomena, and very little research has been conducted on their actual connection. The original contribution of this book to an emerging field of study is to develop a strong, coherent and empirically informed theoretical framework for understanding the specific paradigm of post-truth populism. The authors propose this paradigm as a way of interpreting different contemporary political phenomena, such as conspiracy theories, political destabilisation, and debates around immigration, the role of journalists and the media, climate change, gender and sexuality, Islam, and minority rights, as well as a way of understanding the threats and challenges this poses to the liberal democratic model and way of life.

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Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2025. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.