Description:

Please join us for this conversation with Silvio Waisbord, director and professor at the School of Media and Public Affairs at George Washing University.  

Some years after political communication research identified a "perfect storm" of toxic developments of disinformation, polarization, and hate, it is opportune to revisit this line of argument from a Latin American perspective. One could argue these are not novel developments in the region, despite the novel dimension of digital politics. So, it is worth asking what is new and whether fears expressed by Western scholars are warranted in the region. The main problems are twofold: the assumption that the challenges of Western democracies directly apply to Latin America, and the focus on the singular "political effects"of digital platforms in terms of beliefs and attitudes. Instead, what is needed is to examine why and how media trends support anti-democratic developments. Troubling trends in political communication alone are real threats when they crystalize into post-truth, polarizing, hateful and popular movements.

About the speaker

Silvio Waisbord is Director and Professor at the School of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University, United States. He is the author and editor of eighteen books and articles on journalism, politics, media, and communication for social change. His latest books are The Empire of Utopia: Myths and Realities of North American Society (in Spanish, Peninsula / Planeta 2020) and The Routledge Companion to Media, Disinformation and Populism (co-edited with Howard Tumber). He served as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Communication and International Journal of Press/Politics. He has been recently elected President of the International Communication Association. He holds a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of California, San Diego and a licenciatura in sociology from the University of Buenos Aires.