Prepare for the 2019 Community Summit: Confronting the Disinformation Age [April 10 to 18] with some of the titles in this recommended reading list.
These works expand on some of the key ideas discussed throughout this year's Community Summit event and are available for borrowing in the SFU Library collection.
Post-truth
Come to terms with the new realities posed by the"post-truth era" in which emotional appeals outweigh factual statements.
- Reality Bites: Rhetoric and the Circulation of Truth Claims in U.S. Political Culture / Dana L. Cloud
- Trumpocracy: The Corruption of the American Republic / David Frum
- The Death of Truth: Notes on Falsehood in the Age of Trump / Michiko Kakutani
- Post-Truth / Lee C. McIntyre
- America’s Post-Truth Phenomenon: When Feelings and Opinions Trump Facts and Evidence / C.G. Prado, C. G., ed.
Fake news
Better understand the effects of the rise in intentionally misleading news stories that find wide audiences via social media.
- Fake News, Propaganda, and Plain Old Lies: How to Find Trustworthy Information in the Digital Age / Donald Barclay
- How to Save Politics in a Post-Truth Era: Thinking through Difficult Times / Ilan Zvi Baron
- Network Propaganda: Manipulation, Disinformation, and Radicalization in American Politics / Yochai Benkler
- Fake News: Falsehood, Fabrication and Fantasy in Journalism / Brian McNair
- American Pravda: My Fight for Truth in the Era of Fake News / James O’Keefe
Politics
Re-evaluate the essential role of truth and fact-checking in the political sphere.
- The Politics of Misinformation / Murray J. Edelman.
- Deciding What’s True: The Rise of Political Fact-Checking in American Journalism / Lucas Graves
- 935 Lies: The Future of Truth and the Decline of America’s Moral Integrity / Charles Lewis
- Rich Media, Poor Democracy: Communication Politics in Dubious Times / Robert Waterman McChesney
- Does Truth Matter?: Democracy and Public Space / Ronald Tinnevelt and Raf Geenens, eds.
Technology and social media
Evaluate the role of technology and social media platforms as key agents in the increasing proliferation of widespread misinformation.
- Journalistic Authority: Legitimating News in the Digital Era / Matt Carlson
- Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy / Cathy O’Neil
- The Black Box Society: The Secret Algorithms That Control Money and Information / Frank Pasquale
- Overload: Finding the Truth in Today’s Deluge of News / Bob Schieffer
- Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy / Siva Vaidhyanathan
- Computational Propaganda: Political Parties, Politicians, and Political Manipulation on Social Media / Samuel C. Woolley and Philip N. Howard
- The Attention Merchants: The Epic Scramble to Get inside Our Heads / Tim Wu
Scientific misinformation
Learn about the ongoing threat to scientific knowledge posed by widespread misinformation about topics ranging from vaccinations to climate change.
- Pseudoscience: The Conspiracy Against Science / David Ball et al.
- A Field Guide to Lies: Critical Thinking in the Information Age / Daniel J. Levitin
- Don’t Even Think about It: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Ignore Climate Change / George Marshall
- Climate Change Denial: Heads in the Sand / Haydn Washington
Classic works
Discover the philosophical theories and historical trends that add valuable context to current debates involving the role of truth and information in politics and society.
- The Origins of Totalitarianism / Hannah Arendt
- On Truth / Simon Blackburn
- Nineteen Eighty-Four / George Orwell
- The Flight from Truth: The Reign of Deceit in the Age of Information / Jean-François Revel
- On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century / Timothy Snyder
Canada
Learn more about challenges and threats to information access in a Canadian context, with titles discussing political propaganda, media censorship, and governmental control over online communication.
- Propaganda and Persuasion: The Cold War and the Canadian-Soviet Friendship Society / Jennifer Anderson
- The Fog of War: Censorship of Canada’s Media in World War Two / Mark Bourrie
- Democracy under Threat: Risks and Solutions in the Era of Disinformation and Data Monopoly : Report of the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics / Canada. Parliament. House of Commons. Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics
- A Propaganda System: How the Canada’s Government, Corporations, Media and Academia Sell War and Exploitation / Yves Engler
- Interpreting Censorship in Canada / Hutchinson, Allan C., Klaus Petersen, and Canadian Electronic Library