The power, the truth and post-truth from the Foucauldian perspective

Post-truth (hakikat sonrası) has been selected as the word of the year in 2016 by the Oxford Dictionary to reflect the political atmosphere marks a period in which the truth has been bent and twisted in order to influence the voters during the Brexit referendum in the United Kingdom and the presidential election in the United States. Populist politicians, who ignore the objective facts in the post-truth era, direct the attitudes and behaviors of the target groups with the truths they construct by considering their emotion and beliefs. In the light of power/knowledge interpretation of the French philosopher Michel Foucault (1926-1984), how the power has shaped the societies by constructing or altering the truth from past to the present, how they have been associated with the period called the post-truth era and how individuals and groups are governed by power practices are explained in this thesis by using qualitative method. In the literature review, Foucault's books, articles and interviews are examined as a primary source, the concepts of power and truth are interpreted, and how power works as a truth-producing machine. The post-truth concept, which is evaluated from a Foucauldian perspective, is supported with secondary sources and news about current events and the thesis study is concluded.