Third International Conference on Communication & Media Studies

Abstract

In this paper I claim that we live in a poly-factual society. A poly-factual society is characterized by the production and sharing of factual information in many novel ways other than through traditional news work and editorial gatekeeping. In a poly-factual society, information production and distribution is center-less and not hierarchically organized. News can come from other actors than news companies and how we produce and receive news in society is being re-institutionalized. Corporations, tech-companies, public institutions, organisations, and the public at large all struggle to be trustworthy gatekeepers in a digital media environment. In this struggle to be an authority that can present the truest factual knowledge, we see tribal bickering both between politicians and between news media. We also see a tendency of polarization where people support like-minded people in a fight to define “the facts.” Despite this situation, we are neither left with pure lies nor are we out of facts in society, but out of too much factual diverging information have sprung distrust and skepticism in mediated information. Evidently this has lead to a disbelief in political communication but in particular a disbelief in news media as an authoritative voice of truth. Ultimately the power of the news media to oversee political debate and act as society’s watchdog is fading. Hence, the paper clarifies why it is important to abstain from a banal use of “post-truth,” “post-factual,” and “fake news” and instead embrace notions of poly-factuality and news as factional strategies that can produced from various actors in society.