In the digital age, media industry has to adapt to business models that are very dependent on advertising. To obtain exposure and generate more clicks, media and journalists have to attract people’s attention, and to do so, they tend to contribute to spread misinformation, distorted stories and sensationalism.
Two philosophers, Vincent Hendricks and Mads Vestergaard, define the features and the key elements of this current post-factual democracy and explain why this situation has to be prevented.
After analyzing how the attention economy (namely, the approach that considers attention as a valuable resource) and the market for news work, the authors discuss on political bubbles and the quality of information. Next, the book focuses on social and psychological mechanisms that make people resistant to facts making misinformation effectual. Finally it concludes pointing out why worth combating this trend towards post-factual democracy.
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