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Week of June 26, 2017

The word is now properly affixed, facts so last century
no longer "pure and unconditional"

The adjective “post-truth” has been officially inscribed in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), the ultimate authority on the English language, noted the BBC (June 27). Last November Oxford Dictionaries anointed “post-truth” as 2016 international word of the year. Within the community of journalists it is inextricably linked with “fake news” and the normalization of veracity challenged narratives.

The OED defines post-truth as “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.” Truth has become just another opinion… to some. The Earth could be round or, just as easily, flat; “alternative facts,” as described by a Trump administration spokesperson. (See more about fake news here)

The news media (real news) feels particular pain in the post-truth era. From outright deception on matters of significance to upending the means to speak truth, journalism is, then, deprecated. George Orwell’s dystopian world of newspeak, memory hole and Big Brother appears ominously upon us.

Smart people across many disciplines (disparagingly referred to as “book-learners” by the alternative fact crowd) have massed at universities, libraries and conference halls in recent months to seek, as they do, understanding. This "weak" concept of post-truth "misleads us to believe that before the new American president our attachment to the truth was pure and unconditional,” offered French astrophysicist Aurélien Barrau to a European Lab conference, quoted by rue89lyon.fr (May 25). There are not enough fact-checkers, was the conclusion.

New hit movie shows how much watching movies have changed
groans in France

The action-fantasy feature film Okja that premiered at this year’s Cannes Film Festival is now available to one and all via Netflix. Reviews of South Korean director Bong Joon-Ho’s work are, generally, good. The story is about post-capitalist greed and an escaped SuperPig. The Guardian (June 28) suggested it could be Netflix’ “first blockbuster.” Netflix invested US$50 million and gave the director complete artistic freedom.

Netflix - along with other video-on-demand service competitors - have had hits. The biggest, by far, is its business model; easy access to reasonably priced original material, sometimes risky, always disruptive through a high-profile single purpose brand. In April Netflix announced passage through the 100 million subscriber threshold. (See more about video on demand)

At the Cannes Film Festival French theater operators were horrified that Netflix would not be following the rules prescribing a 36 month waiting period between theatrical and video-on-demand release. When the Netflix title was shown they booed and howled. Only the SoFilm Summer Festival venues in three cities screened the Okja opening. (See more about media in France here)

Netflix now has 1.5 million subscribers in France, said chief executive Reed Hastings, quoted by Variety (June 16).

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