Florian Rötzer in conversation with Nicola Gess

Guest in the digital salon of the ZKM is Prof. Dr. Nicola Gess, who teaches literary studies at the University of Basel and has just published a book on »Half-truths. On the Manipulation of Reality«, published by Matthes & Seitz. In it, she explains that fake news, conspiracy theories and populist propaganda often resort to half-truths. They bridge the gap from fact-based discourse to the space of speculation and fiction, and are ultimately not concerned with truth or lies, but with coherence, credibility, and attention. Their thesis is that fact-checks bounce off representatives of half-truths because of this; fiction theory and narratology, instruments of literary studies, are responsible for debunking them.

Video documentary:

ZKM | Videostudio

Live editing: Xenia Leidig
Livestream: Peter Müller