Evolution of Political Simulacra in Digital Society (on the Examples of “fake news” and “post-truth”)

Introduction. The paper deals with the evolution of “fake-news” and “post-truth” in the digital society, which can be qualified as simulations of virtual space. The authors formulate a hypothesis that disclosure of the features of social evolution of “fake news” and “post truth” as political simulaсra is possible on the basis of a multi-paradigm approach that combines the explanatory potential of sociology of communication, political sociology, systemic, interactive approach, concepts of cultivation and agenda.

Methodology and sources. The methodological basis is a multi-paradigm approach to the study of “fake news” and “post truth” as “simulacras” of virtual space, distributed mainly "on the World Wide Web" in the form of deliberately false or distorting messages, memes, posts, repost, tweets, retweets, trolling, etc., allowing to unite heuristic possibilities of system-sociological and interactive approaches, theory of communicative action, concepts of cultivation and agenda.

Results and discussion. The authors argue that “fake news” as an information unit of mainly political and communicative space is a natural product of digitalization development, which arises from the “post truth”. Today the artificial construction of political news has a practical impact on the behavior of businessmen, public figures, political leaders, etc., as well as to influence the real socio-economic processes and political and legal sphere on a global scale. The problem of belief in "fake news" is considered, the study of which, based on multi-paradigm methodology, allows to reveal it properly and find possible solutions.

Conclusion. Consideration of the evolution of “fake news” and “post truth” in digital society shows that they act as certain political simulacras of virtual space with using the manipulative technologies. “Fake-news” and “posttruth” pose a threat to society as a whole, create “obstacles” for their study and complicate communicative interaction, replacing real socio-political communications and tangible political actions with their imitation in virtual space or, for example, as a politically convenient truth, form a certain synthetic simulacrum in political-communicative practice, which combines PR-shows and media manipulations.

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