Dystopia of truth: social fear in the Charlie Hebdo terrorist attack

  • Rubén Arriazu Muñoz Universidad de Extremadura
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5209/poso.59712
Keywords: information, post-truth, collective emotions, critical thinking, culture of fear

Abstract

The redefinition of the interpretative frameworks of truth is one of the features of modern Western society. The factual elements of information have ceased the referential protagonist of the Enlightenment and, today, we are immersed in a chaotic scenario where multiple truths about the same social phenomenon converge. In the post-truth era, the emotional relation with the audience has become an essential part of legitimizing the plausibility of information. The aim of this research is to analyze the communication strategies used to transmit social fear through the analysis of two contrasting news items on the Charlie Hebdo attack. To address this purpose, the methodology of audiovisual interpretative analysis based on the interdependence between the object, the socio-cultural context of production and the impact of the news on the audience has been used. One of the most important conclusions that this study reveals is that the expression of collectively accepted emotions is the result of the conjunction of the referential (logos) and emotional (pathos) elements of information.

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Author Biography

Rubén Arriazu Muñoz, Universidad de Extremadura

Profesor en la Universidad de Extremadura en el área de Sociología desde el año 2009. Doctor en Sociología por la Universidad Complutense de Madrid en el programa de doctorado “Metodología de la Investigación en Sociología, Comunicación y Cultura” obteniendo el premio extraordinario de doctorado (2011). Licenciado en Sociología por la Universidad Complutense de Madrid (2004). Estancias de investigación en el Instituto Internacional de Planeamiento de la Educación de la UNESCO (IIPE–UNESCO)  Buenos Aires (2017), en Graduate School of Education de la Universidad de Pensilvania (2013) y en Harvard Graduate School of Education de la Universidad de Harvard (2008). Premio a la excelencia docente DOCENTIA-UEX (2016) y reconocido un tramo de investigación (Sexenio) ANECA (2016).

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Published
2019-10-23
How to Cite
Arriazu Muñoz R. (2019). Dystopia of truth: social fear in the Charlie Hebdo terrorist attack. Política y Sociedad, 56(2), 495-514. https://doi.org/10.5209/poso.59712
Issue
Vol. 56 No. 2 (2019): Tensión y relación: contextos y comprensiones del parentesco en las familias creadas mediante la reproducción humana asistida
Section
Miscelaneus

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