Reality Lost: Markets of Attention, Misinformation and Manipulation
by Vincent F. Hendricks (Author), Mads Vestergaard (Author)

About the Author
Vincent F. Hendricks is Professor of Formal Philosophy at The University of Copenhagen. He is Director of the Center for Information and Bubble Studies (CIBS) sponsored by the Carlsberg Foundation and has been was awarded a number of prizes for his research among them The Elite Research Prize by the Danish Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, The Roskilde Festival Elite Research Prize, Choice Magazine Outstanding Academic Title Award and The Rosenkjær Prize. He was Editor-in-Chief of Synthese: An International Journal for Epistemology, Methodology and Philosophy of Science between 2005-2015.
Mads Vestergaard (b. 1979) is PhD Fellow at Center for Information and Bubble Studies (CIBS), University of Copenhagen. He holds a M.A. in philosophy, and debates and communicates philosophy and social science in written press, radio and television. He has also applied philosophy in more untraditional contexts as art projects and satire.

About this book
This open access book looks at how a democracy can devolve into a post-factual state.
The media is being flooded by populist narratives, fake news, conspiracy theories and make-believe. Misinformation is turning into a challenge for all of us, whether politicians, journalists, or citizens. In the age of information, attention is a prime asset and may be converted into money, power, and influence – sometimes at the cost of facts. The point is to obtain exposure on the air and in print media, and to generate traffic on social media platforms. With information in abundance and attention scarce, the competition is ever fiercer with truth all too often becoming the first victim.
Reality Lost: Markets of Attention, Misinformation and Manipulation is an analysis by philosophers Vincent F. Hendricks and Mads Vestergaard of the nuts and bolts of the information market, the attention economy and media eco-system which may pave way to postfactual democracy. Here misleading narratives become the basis for political opinion formation, debate, and legislation. To curb this development and the threat it poses to democratic deliberation, political self-determination and freedom, it is of necessary that we first grasp the mechanisms and structural conditions that causes it.

Table of contents
1 The Attention Economy 1
    1. 1 The Information Society 1
    1. 2 The Price of Information 2
    1. 3 The Scarcity of Attention 3
    1. 4 Information Sources 4
    1. 5 The Market for Attention 6
    1. 6 Attention Merchants 8
    1. 7 Data Collection 11
    1. 8 Hit Them Where It Hurts 13
2 The News Market 19
    2. 1 The King of the Agenda 19
    2. 2 The Unwanted Candidate 23
    2. 3 Media Logic 25
    2. 4 Entertainment as Ideology 27
    2. 5 The Free Online Market for News 28
    2. 6 A Channel for the Elite 32
3 Attention Speculation and Political Bubbles 35
    3. 1 The Mediatized Society 35
    3. 2 The Media-Created Political Reality 36
    3. 3 Where Was Obama Born?  37
    3. 4 Signal Legislation and Symbol Politics 39
    3. 5 Political Bubbles 43
    3. 6 The Substance 45
    3. 7 Investment and Speculation 46
4 Alternative Facts, Misinformation, and Fake News 49
    4. 1 Alternative Facts 49
    4. 2 Truth in Science and Journalism 53
    4. 3 Information, Misinformation, and Disinformation 54
    4. 4 True, False, and Everything in Between 55
    4. 5 Exaggerations, Omissions, and Cherry Picking 56
    4. 6 Rumors, Belief Echoes, and Fact Checking 59
    4. 7 Lies and Bull***** 62
    4. 8 Fake News as Feigned News 63
        4. 8. 1 For Fun/ Trolling 64
        4. 8. 2 Web Traffic/ Money 65
        4. 8. 3 Marketing/ Sales 66
        4. 8. 4 Propaganda/ Power Struggle 67
        4. 8. 5 Merkel the Supervillain 71
    4. 9 Information Whitewashing 75
5 Fact Resistance, Populism, and Conspiracy Theories 79
    5. 1 Truthiness 79
    5. 2 Inconvenient Facts 80
    5. 3 Motivated Reasoning 81
    5. 4 Loyal Lies 83
    5. 5 Populism: Us-Versus-Them 86
    5. 6 Social Transmission: Indignation and Fear 88
    5. 7 Why Do I Suffer?  89
    5. 8 The Structure of Conspiracy Theories 94
6 The Post-factual Democracy 103
    6. 1 The Word of the Year 2016 103
    6. 2 Post-factual Democracy 104
    6. 3 Democratic Beacons 106
    6. 4 Division of Labor as Ideal 107
    6. 5 The Factual Democracy Is Technocratic 109
    6. 6 Lies and Deceit 111
    6. 7 Accountability 113
    6. 8 Totalitarian Propaganda 115
7 Epilogue: Digital Roads to Totalitarianism 119
    7. 1 Digital Emancipation 119
    7. 2 The Chinese Panopticon 120
    7. 3 Surveillance Capitalism 126
    7. 4 Prediction is Profit 129
    7. 5 Prediction Is Power 131
    7. 6 Roads to Totalitarianism 134

Length: 144 pages
Publisher: Springer; 1st ed. 2019 edition (November 23, 2018)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 3030008126
ISBN-13: 978-3030008123

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