Strategies for using Fake News as a tool to manipulate public opinion

As number of other sociologists, the author assumes that post-truth, as we know it today, is a product of the changed communicative environment of society (the Internet and social networks) and the deformation of the field of political information. The aim of this research was to explore and discuss the narrower scape of such phenomena as posttruth: Fake News as a tool to manipulate public opinion. The methodology of the article draws upon classics of political sociology and communication studies (Baudrillard, Le Bon, Habermas) and new research papers (Kohler, Tretyakov, Urbinati). In order to gather some empirical evidence, the author analyses the publications in such media as NYTimes, NewsWeek, The Washington Post, DailyMail, BBCNews, RussiaToday. As a result of research, three objectives were identified as the ones to be pursued as primary reasons for manipulating public opinion: to destroy the political opponent; to gain trust; as a strategy of legitimation of political actions. The author discusses such evident negative tendencies in the political field as: degradation of liberal democracy; loss of public trust in political institutions; escalation of ethnopolitical conflicts, reduction of meaning and irrationality.