Keynote Speech 1: Envisioning Social Justice as a Communicative Framework: Communicology Ethics in a Post-Truth World through Theory and Praxis

Abstract

The talk aims to draw attention to the grappling with concepts and contemporary issues in communications studies during a post-truth context as an exploratory process of delving into one of the most significant paradigm shifts in public discourse. Post-truth politics have exacerbated cultures of fear, the blurring between truth and falsity, as well as enabling deliberative strategies of lying to become a central concern in public life and academia. Such occurrences are especially potent in how new communications and social media technologies are operationalised. Post-truth environments appeal to emotionalities and fragile belief systems, frequently devaluing scientific expertise and such social vibrations have significant implications far beyond communications in how politics and social justice are challenged by the historicity of contempt for expert opinion.