Conspiracist, Leaker, Troll, Influencer: A comparative analysis of four post-truth personae

The viral spread of fake news and the saturation of social media with disinformation and conspiracy theories present grave challenges to society, and have been analyzed by academics and journalists as part of a new post-truth condition. This raises two crucial questions that my project seeks to answer: How exactly does the Internet reconfigure our relationship to knowledge and truth, and what are the new forms of knowing and truth-telling it gives rise to in response? I will answer these questions by conducting a comparative analysis of four post-truth personae that are hypothesized to embody four such responses: the Conspiracist, Leaker, Troll, and Influencer. Utilizing innovative methods from contemporary media and cultural studies, I will first analyze conspiracy theorizing on the discussion platform Reddit as embodying the epistemic uncertainties endemic to digital environments. Then, I will analyze WikiLeaks and the media sharing platform LiveLeak as engendering a new practice of truth-telling as “leaking”. Thirdly, I will analyze trolling on the anonymous forums 4chan and 8chan as a new form of post-truth media literacy that became “weaponized” by right-wing extremists online. Finally, I will analyze influencers on Instagram as marking a shift away from truth to the idea of monetizable “influence”. Through the comparative analysis of these personae, my project will generate new insights into their cultural significance as responses to a shared post-truth predicament.