Fact & Fake. Scientific skepticism, conspiracy myths and the new power of disinformation in the digital age

Bernhard Pörksen, Professor of Media Studies, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen.

What are the causes of the perceptible questionability of knowledge and a palpable crisis of truth and trust that underlies the debates on the Corona pandemic and climate change? How do opinions emerge in a networked, highly nervous world? Bernhard Pörksen, Professor of Media Studies at the University of Tübingen, vividly and concretely analyses the arousal patterns of the digital age and shows how our idea of truth, the dynamics of revelations, the character of debates and the notion of authority and power are changing under current media conditions. Today, everyone has become a broadcaster, the influence of established journalism is dwindling. In this situation, the wise use of information is part of general education. Media literacy has become the existential question of democracy.

Bernhard Pörksen is Professor of Media Studies at the University of Tübingen. He researches the power of public outrage and the future of reputation and publishes - in addition to academic essays - essays and commentaries in many newspapers. His books with the philosopher Heinz von Foerster ("Truth is the Invention of a Liar") and the communication psychologist Friedemann Schulz von Thun ("Communication as the Art of Living") became bestsellers. In 2008, Bernhard Pörksen was elected "Professor of the Year". In 2018, his book "Die große Gereiztheit. Wege aus der kollektiven Erregung" (Hanser-Verlag). Recently he published his latest book "Die Kunst des Miteinander-Redens. On Dialogue in Society and Politics" together with the communication psychologist Friedemann Schulz von Thun.