Trumped
From Subjugated Knowledges to Alternative Facts: News Media and the Politics of Truth in the Trump Era
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Black Hawk Hancock
Following Michel Foucault’s work, what is the status of truth, knowledge, and power in the Trump era of “alternative facts” where “fake news media” is “the enemy of the people?” In answering this question through an assessment of news media, this paper explores Foucault’s concepts of power/knowledge and the constitutive role they play in constituting “truth” in the public sphere. Since facts are never self-evident, knowledge is always a process of production in the interests of a group situated within a social system of power relations. Facts are resources that are linked together—articulated— within specific social contexts for particular ideologies, politics, and practices. As a result, this paper explores the construction of facts, how facts are inserted into discourses and discursive formations, which become power/knowledge regimes. To parse opinion from empirical evidence, relativism from objectivity, dominant from subjugated knowledges, authoritarianism from truth-telling, we must return to fundamental Foucauldian questions: What is the function and value of truth? How does truth exercise power? What are the effects that truth produces? These questions provide a springboard to examine the realm of news media as the conduit through which information is circulated to communicate, interpret, explain, and critique the world around us.
Fake Media and Trump's Image in the Presidential Election of 2016: A Secondary Construction of Online Identity
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Elisa Kannasto, Ari Haasio
In this study, we look at the ways one fake media website, "Newspunch," portrayed Donald Trump prior to the presidential election 2016 in the United States. The data were collected between Trump’s candidacy announcement and the election day and consisted of 310 news articles collected during 516 days. The data were analyzed using content analysis. The content was coded into categories to show the issues and characteristics that were used to construct Trump’s online identity, the self presentation portrayed of Trump online. For this process, a model for analyzing the secondary construction, i. e. the construction built by an outside institution, of online identity was created. Several different ways to construct a political candidate’s online identity were found. Personal facts, like Trump’s origin, age, and family were left with very little attention. Instead, emphasis was placed on certain policies, like opposing Muslims and Mexicans, highlighting Trump’s reputation, wealth, and the use of controversial rhetoric and his behavior and rhetoric towards women. Also, Trump’s relation and connections with other politicians and celebrities were discussed widely. Trump’s lack of expertise in political issues was highlighted and different ways, including comments about his looks, entertainment world, and assassination speculations, were used to ridicule him. Understanding how fake media constructs a politician’s online identity helps in developing media literacy because it provides insight into approaching these types of media and their news.
