Gabriele Cosentino Boeken

Exploring the global implications of post-truth, the book examines its roots in the trust crisis faced by liberal democracies. It highlights how this phenomenon fuels ideological conflicts and geopolitical power struggles, reshaping the world order. Through various examples, it illustrates the dangerous spread of disinformation across social media, including manipulation by foreign actors and the impact on political narratives worldwide. Written accessibly yet grounded in theory, it serves as a crucial resource for those interested in the intersection of social media and politics.

What caused the Covid-19 pandemic? Were the mitigation measures imposed by many governments - such as lockdowns and mask-wearing mandates - based on scientific evidence, or rather aimed at curtailing civil liberties and disrupting economic activities, under the secret maneuvering of a global cabal of politicians and financiers? And were Covid-19 vaccines effective in curbing the spread of the disease, or were they just a profitable scheme by big pharmaceutical companies?These questions and speculations, some legitimate, some dubious, have been swirling around the globe through social media, alternative information outlets, instant messaging apps, and mainstream media since the beginning of the pandemic, feeding the 'infodemic' - an overwhelming surge of information, misinformation, rumours and conspiracy theories which continue to linger in public and private discourse.With an original take on concepts and theories drawn from post-truth and disinformation studies, the book analyses the 'infodemic' through a series of global case studies. Framing the infodemic as a complex, multi-layered phenomenon with vast geopolitical implications, Gabriele Cosentino reveals the global competition for control in twenty-first century geopolitics between Western liberal democracies and non-Western autocracies, and above all between the United States and China.