We are pleased to announce the new ePublication of Manipulated Research and Media, by our member organisation the Institute of the Czech Left in collaboration with transform! europe. Through a series of interviews, it explores the manipulation both of media and research across several countries, assessing its effects in the public sphere.
The weakening of the tolerance towards differing opinions in order to manipulate the public sphere has become a typical trait in most today’s societies of the European Union. Since the neoliberal capitalism is no longer very efficient, it brings about a deterioration in the living standards of many citizens. People express dissent, but the system does not want to hear it.
Meanwhile, in order to prevent various findings from reaching the public at large, research is also being restricted so that these findings cannot be produced at all, or at least are made more difficult to produce.
This book of interviews addresses both themes.
The e-book begins and closes with debates on the manipulation of the media in the public space. Mid-publication interviews explore the manipulations of research in relationship to the public sphere and the citizens at large.
The interview format allows readers to understand the topic more easily than through academic papers — After all, a conversation between people is a more natural way to communicate than reading analyses by separate authors. Research texts by individual authors are certainly of prime importance to present new knowledge. However, it is equally beneficial to communicate that knowledge through interviews.
The interviews critically connect the public spheres of several EU countries through the common European theme of distorted knowledge in the areas of research, mass media, public opinion, citizens and voters, using a comparative global approach. The publication authors come from Europe (Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Germany), Africa (DR Congo), North America (USA, Canada), Latin America (Cuba) and Asia (India). Most of them are researchers and journalists from Europe, especially from Central Europe, as this is where our focus is.
The interviews address the above-mentioned distortions in the specific context of the current European Parliament election campaign in the common European public spheres. The sponsorinf of the campaigns of political parties and politicians by companies and wealthy businessmen is seen by many as a problem. This sponsoring occurs through the framework of the mainstream mass media, with a great deal of work, advertising space and money put into manipulating the audiences and the public opinion, that is, the electorate.
The current election campaign provides a unique view into the distortions of the public sphere in individual countries and also demonstrates that this is a common European problem which needs to be addressed by countries together. It points out the need to revitalise common left democratic public spheres in the European Union, where citizens would not be the manipulated targets of mass media campaigns paid by corporations but, instead, genuine democratic voters equipped with well-informed knowledge of emancipatory politics, society, economy, foreign affairs, security and the environment. High-quality research should focus on topics that are important to the needs and lives of citizens, especially those with low and middle incomes.
Manipulovaný výzkum a média. Rozhovory o neoliberálních a neokonzervativních deformacích (“Manipulated research and media. Interviews about neoliberal and neoconservative distortions”)— An e-book in the Czech and Slovak languages —
Editor: Jan Klan
Institute of the Czech Left (Institut české levice)
in cooperation with transform! europe
Prague 2024
<< Access & download by clicking here or on book cover
Table of Contents
Jan Klan: Introduction
Jan Klan: How knowledge manipulation is performed
Marek Hrubec: There is a need for social and research change: On neoliberal distortions of search
Peter Dinus: Profit maximisation leads to manipulation of media, education and research
Ernesto Dominguez Lopez: The current nature of capitalism controls knowledge creation more
Arne Kusej and Ivana Maricic: Intellectuals and intellectual production in today’s era
Kanchan Sarker: Neoliberalism has affected India as much as the West
Albert Kasanda: Why is African experience and knowledge being ignored?
Frantisek Dvorak: Corrupted research and society
Martin Profant: We all depend on the degree of enlightenment or of its absence of those who are currently in power
Jan Svoboda: Masaryk’s philosophy in response to declining knowledge and society
Jan Campbell: We have become members of the media world
Petr Sak: The aim of capital-controlled media is a manipulated image
Information about the authors
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