UNITED States President Donald Trump’s election and his disdain for the mainstream media has been seen by some as the triumph of “post-truth politics”.
guest column: George Ogola
Post-truth politics is a culture in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.
Not only is Trump deliberately picking wars with America’s mainstream media, he is forcing it to be more introspective by placing it in the same category as fringe outlets that supported his candidature through fake news.
The American experience and the debates it has triggered on post-politics, post-truth, fake news and alternative facts are relevant in Africa, where truth regimes remain both loose and contested.
It is important to recognise that in Africa, the idea of a post-truth era — which by implication presupposes the existence of an era in which “truth” was self-evident — is folly.
On much of the continent mainstream news media has traditionally struggled on the credibility index.
The post-truth era is, therefore, anything but new within the African context. This explains the emergence of alternative regimes of communication and sites of “truth”.
These range from rumour to popular cultural forms such as plays and popular music.
Post-independence years
After gaining independence in the early 1960s, most African governments systematically set about decimating the private news media.
Governments invested heavily in State-owned media, which were seen as important channels through which to husband power.
Click link for more https://www.newsday.co.zw/2017/03/01/africa-long-history-fake-news-years-living-non-truth/
This article first appeared in The Conversation. George Ogola is a senior lecturer in journalism at the University of Central Lancashire
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