Trump refuses to answer a reporter accused of spreading 'fake news',January, 2017.Gary Hershom/Press Association. All rights reserved.In an age of so-called ‘post-truth politics’ and ‘alternative facts’, the question of ideology has become pressing. Following Donald J. Trump’s election, many journalists and scholars looked for explanations. Did the electorate really believe the outrageous falsehoods that his campaign was based on, or was there something else at work? The same goes for the proliferation of fake news – how do we understand the fact that such unreliable sources can wield influence in the public sphere?
If the only issue at stake here were an absence of truth in politics and journalism, the solution would be simple: politicians and journalists need to check facts (and stick to them), and the public needs to maintain a critical stance and boycott unreliable sources.
However, this solution may rely on an outdated model of ideology: the theory that ideology is simply people being told and believing inaccurate information. Many scholars argue that ideology functions in a far more complex way than this. If we want to understand and combat post-truth politics, do we need to update our understanding of ideology first?
