"The positive side of fake news is that it puts the citizen on alert. They teach them to manage, search for and recognize the truth in a society that has changed". This was stated by Lourdes Flamarique, professor of Philosophy at the University of Navarra and co-organizer of the international congress 'Truth: fulfilled and defrauded expectations'. The activity is promoted by the Institute for Culture and Society (ICS) of the University of Navarra and is financed by the Ministry of Economics and Zurich Seguros.

Inés Olza, ICS researcher, was also in charge of the organization position . The expert pointed out that "there are now communication spaces in which anyone can have an impact, be a voice heard and recognized. This is fantastic, but presents the challenge of the reliability of the source".

One of the topics addressed by the event is how information has proliferated and the consequent change in the truth-lie paradigm. From agreement with Olza, "today we only pay attention to what is prominent, such as headlines. That's why ironic or humorous headlines sometimes present problems, because some people interpret them literally".

Truth in politics

Another of the issues addressed by congress is the cost of lying in different areas, one of them being politics. "Politicians sometimes choose to 'say without saying', they speak with implicit, to avoid responsibility and confrontations. This is a lack of clarity of speech, they do not pronounce themselves unequivocally," commented Inés Olza.

He has mentioned the case of Donald Trump: "He has openly lied and yet he has won because his voters have focused on other things they believed to be sincere such as his eagerness to 'protect' America".

Politics is one of the areas in which another of the relevant concepts of congress has been most applied, post-truth, a trend in which objective facts have less influence than appeals to emotions and personal beliefs. Lourdes Flamarique points out that this expression is not new, "it has been around for a long time and functions more as a denunciation, a call for attention to this subject of personalities".

The philosopher is sample optimistic about the growing public discussion around the truth: "The presence of this as a rising value is a sign that an awareness of the unease about frauds, lies and deceptions has been created".

The congress 'Truth: expectations fulfilled and dashed' is co-organized by the projects 'Emotional culture and identity' y 'Public discourse' projects of the ICS and will be held on October 20-21. Speakers include Franca D'Agostini, from the State University of Milan (Italy); Johanna Fawkes, from the University of Huddersfield (UK); and Jorge Bustos, opinion editor of El Mundo.