LA RÉCEPTION MÉDIATIQUE ET LA PARTICIPATION CITOYENNE EN RÉGIME DE POST-VÉRITÉ : ÉTUDE MIXTE SUR LES PERCEPTIONS DU PUBLIC MAROCAIN
MEDIA RECEPTION AND CITIZEN PARTICIPATION IN A POST-TRUTH ERA: A MIXED-METHODS STUDY ON THE PERCEPTIONS OF THE MOROCCAN PUBLIC

Summary/Abstract: This article examines the complex dynamics of media reception and civic participation within the contemporary post-truth regime, drawing on an empirical study conducted in Morocco. Over the past fifteen years, the media landscape has been transformed by accelerated digitalization and algorithmic recommendation systems. Objective facts increasingly lose their centrality to emotional appeals and persuasive narratives. Consequently, media reception has shifted from passive decoding to a complex negotiation of meaning, where truth is evaluated through affective lenses rather than strictly rational verification. To understand these structural shifts, this research employs a mixed-methods approach focusing on young, connected urban populations, combining thirty qualitative interviews and a quantitative survey of four hundred respondents.The findings reveal a nuanced climate of media distrust: 64% of respondents express low trust in traditional media, and 52% demonstrate skepticism toward social media. Rather than rejecting information entirely, audiences adopt pragmatic strategies, frequently utilizing social networks for immediate news access (71%) and traditional media for verification (58%). The study highlights the central role of emotions in shaping civic engagement. While 69% of participants are drawn to emotionally charged content—which strongly correlates with increased online engagement—this participation remains predominantly expressive and ephemeral. Only 15% reported that emotional online mobilization translated into durable offline civic action. Repeated exposure to emotionally saturating narratives frequently induces information fatigue, cynicism, and withdrawal from the public sphere.Ultimately, the study argues that media credibility is no longer an institutional given but a situational and fragile construct. By documenting these dynamics in a Global South context, this research enriches international debates on the post-truth era, emphasizing the urgent need for enhanced media literacy to foster critical and sustainable civic participation in a fragmented digital public sphere.

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