Third International Conference on Communication & Media Studies

Abstract

This paper argues that it is useless and dangerous 1) to exclusively associate fake news with one category of media, a particular ideology or political party in a way that reduces complex realities to rigid binaries or antagonistic rivalries, and 2) to overplay the problem of fake news in a way that conceals bigger, broader, and deeper problems that have precisely facilitated the proliferation of fake news. It is even more futile to set corporate and alternative media against each other because although they differ in many ways, they also overlap, and can even complement each other as long as both adhere to some essential conditions. Specifically, the trend is towards alternative media co-existing and even collaborating with, rather entirely opposing the state, the market, and mainstream media. Finally, since citizens and consumers of information are ultimately responsible for discerning what is true, reasonable, and worthy of belief, this paper argues that Hannah Arendt’s concept of intersubjectivity is the best possible mindset that should be instilled, developed, and adopted.