Post-Truth: The New War on Truth and How to Fight Back by Matthew D’Ancona is a delightful and timely book for anyone who needs a primer on the complicated information environment in which we now find ourselves. I happened to come across it quite by accident at Blackwell’s when giving talks at Oxford on, of all things, participatory propaganda and fake news. This short book was not a disappointment.

At fewer than 200 pages, this book is a quick and easy read. As a journalist, d’Ancona writes simply and clearly, making this a great introduction on the topic. As a researcher covering related topics, I found myself nodding along in agreement. This book is particularly great if you are just an average person looking to get a handle on the information world around you.

Among the many points d’Ancona makes include the  necessity of trust in our society – as well as how fake and misleading information erodes this today – and the fact that profit, in terms of gaining clicks and views, is a major driver behind the spread of misinformation.

Post-Truth: The New War on Truth and How to Fight Back is available at Amazon.

About Author

La Generalista is the online identity of Alicia Wanless – a researcher and practitioner of strategic communications for social change in a Digital Age. Alicia is the director of the Partnership for Countering Influence Operations at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. With a growing international multi-stakeholder community, the Partnership aims to foster evidence-based policymaking to counter threats within the information environment. Wanless is currently a PhD Researcher at King’s College London exploring how the information environment can be studied in similar ways to the physical environment. She is also a pre-doctoral fellow at Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation, and was a tech advisor to Aspen Institute’s Commission on Information Disorder. Her work has been featured in Lawfare, The National Interest, Foreign Policy, and CBC.

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