POST-TRUTH IN THE MEDIAL DISCOURSE

Abstract

Introduction. Post-truth defined a very important phenomenon of the contemporary information space. But for today it had not became the object of the systematic studies. During the last time, the theory of post-truth was developed very intensive but mostly in the West. In Ukraine such kind of studies didn’t get the attention it deserves.      Purpose. The main task of the article is to actualize the concept of post-truth in the context of Ukrainian situation. Especially, when it is talking about information war of Russia against Ukraine, which very often can be understood as a cognitive war.
Results. Researchers says that post-truth totally distorts the informational image of the world, introducing a kind of “viruses” into it. It tends to erode the moral values of society, but it also creates doubts about the perception of reality and about the assessment of real facts. It is not just about denying the truth, but about asserting the right to “one’s own truth”, “alternative truth”, which makes it
problematic to achieve public consensus on principled positions. Struggle against post-truth is not easy, but it is necessary to do it, because it has its audience. It is necessary to uphold the importance of facts and reality against emotional evaluations. Post-truth refers to the relationship between reality and our perception of it, while fake news is a purposeful distortion of the reality in our perception. That is why post-truth postulates indifference to what is happening in reality. Reality loses its authority under the influence of numerous versions that spread in the mass media and question the very fact of truth. In this
case, it is similar to the philosophy of postmodernism, which affirmed the idea of multiplicity as the basis of world perception.
Originality. The effect of post-truth in media discourse is not easy to notice, but some of its features, which the author cites, indicate a significant impact of this technique on the formation of public opinion.
Conclusion. In the combining with propaganda, post-truth in the post-Soviet space becomes particularly toxic and unpredictable, and this effect is reinforced by the very dynamic development of new media. Nowadays post-truth conditions contributes to the disorientation of Ukrainian citizens who are under the influence of the Russian mass media, as well as learn techniques of confrontation and hostility. It uses psychological mechanisms of information perception, and exploits the emotional judgments we tend to trust.
The study of linguistic aspects of post-truth should be continued, because it is language that forms the semantic fields of information in modern mass media. Language resources are involved in the creation of positive and negative characteristics that determine the informational image of the world in the mass media. It often resembles a cognitive war, which reflects the realities of the current war in Ukraine.