For everyone Book review: Facts* And Other Lies, Ed Coper (Allen & Unwin)

★★★★

Ed Coper is a communications expert whose focus is democracy, political activism, and freedom of information. This has led to work in campaign development for social movements such as GetUp. 

Coper’s latest book opens with a question: “Would your slightly younger self, even from as recently as 2015, believe the news of today?” This gathering of facts is an attempt to understand both how we got here and how we might slow the spread of disinformation. Pondered with humour, and peppered with light-hearted anecdotes, Coper breaks down the history of information, the radical changes to the news cycle, and the rise of fake news, interested in how it has been allowed to proliferate. 

Fascinating reading for anyone who finds themselves wondering what happened to good old-fashioned common sense, the book contains practical advice to help “win the story” in the kind of tricky conversations we increasingly find ourselves having, both in life and online.