Forwarded As Received
by Saadia Azim
ISBN: 9789390343539 |
Price: Rs 599
Key Points:
• A comprehensive examination of the anatomy of fake news—how rumours distort public perception and often merge with fear to be accepted as truth.
• Explores the phenomenon through case studies and real-time events from the Indian media.
• Dissects the impact of the simple yet thoughtless act of forwarding unveri-fied news, making this an insightful and deeply relevant read.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO LIVE IN A WORLD WHERE MUCH OF WHAT WE KNOW MAY NOT BE TRUE?
Misinformation has never felt truer than it does today. Claims that once invited examination and debate now float freely and settle into everyday conversation as facts. Repetition lends them authority; famil-iarity gives them legitimacy. In this quiet transformation, falsehood does not announce itself. It embeds, circulates, and endures. This book examines how the seemingly harmless habit of forwarding messages has evolved into a powerful engine of distortion. What be-gins as an everyday digital reflex accumulates into an ecosystem where half-truths and manipulated narratives thrive, reshaping perception, deepening inequality, and normalising suspicion. Deeply original, rigorously researched, and profoundly grounded in the realities of the Global South, Forwarded as Received is a compel-ling examination of our evolving information order—and of the life-altering choices we make, often unknowingly, with every forward.
About the author:
Saadia Azim is a public policy professional, journalist, and researcher with over 25 years of experience across governance, public communication, and mass media. She serves as Chief Operating Officer of the Government of West Bengal’s flagship digital public service delivery program, overseeing more than 5,000 digital kiosks. Her writing on digital misinformation, governance, and algorithmic bias has appeared in the Internet Society Blog, ISOC Pulse, the Global Media Journal, and scholarly volumes on media and democracy. She is based and works in Kolkata, bringing a field-level perspective to the study of how information travels and misleads in everyday life.
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