Join Harvard's Davis Center for a talk with Natalia Roudakova on her book, "Losing Pravda: Ethics and the Press in Post-Truth Russia." "Losing Pravda" examines the professional unraveling of journalism in Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union and its broader social and cultural effects. Roudakova argues that a crisis of journalism is unlike any other: it fundamentally erodes the value of truth-seeking and truth-telling in a society. Roudakova also tracks how a post-truth society comes into being, and shows that Russia’s case is far from unique, illuminating the historical and cultural emergence of phenomena such as “fake news,” misinformation (kompromat), and general distrust in politics and public life that have now begun to plague Western democracies as well. Roudakova’s account of one country’s loss of the culture of truth-seeking can serve as an important “wake-up call” for Western nations going forward.

Speakers:

Natalia Roudakova, author; cultural anthropologist

Maria Sidorkina (chair), visiting scholar, Davis Center; fellow, Center for Humanistic Inquiry, Amherst College