Podcast Summary

Podcast: New Books Network
Host: Dr. Miranda Melcher
Guests: Dr. Martin Moore & Dr. Thomas Colley
Episode: Martin Moore and Thomas Colley, "Dictating Reality: The Global Battle to Control the News" (Columbia UP, 2025)
Date: November 1, 2025

Episode Overview

This episode centers on the timely and important issue of how governments worldwide attempt to control, distort, and weaponize the news and information landscapes. Based on their new book Dictating Reality: The Global Battle to Control the News, Dr. Martin Moore and Dr. Thomas Colley draw on a broad array of international cases—including Russia, China, Hungary, India, Brazil, and more—to demonstrate both new and old forms of information control. The conversation unpacks the mechanics, motives, implications, and resistance to these reality-shaping strategies, highlighting how traditional and digital news spheres are being manipulated by both authoritarian and democratic-leaning leaders.

Meet the Authors and Book Genesis

• [02:47] Dr. Martin Moore: Runs a center for Media, Communication, and Power at King’s College London; lecturer in political communication. He and Colley decided to cowrite after observing how Russia and China used state-controlled news as geopolitical tools, seeing these strategies being adopted worldwide—even in democracies.
  • “We were realizing these techniques were being adopted by leaders and governments around the world. And that wasn’t just autocratic and authoritarian governments, it was also democratic governments.” [03:44]
• [04:20] Dr. Thomas Colley: Visiting fellow at King’s, senior lecturer at Sandhurst. His research focuses on war, national security, information warfare, and disinformation. The global spread of government-shaped realities—especially during COVID—prompted their comparative study.
  • "We realized we had a global phenomenon… and that some of these behaviors by governments were undemocratic and undermine… democracies across the world." [05:41]

Why Does Government Control of News Matter?

[06:37] Stakes of the Issue

• Colley: While government messaging may seem justified in war or crisis, states have a “fundamental incentive” to preserve power and therefore cannot be trusted as unbiased truth-tellers.
  • "Governments… are often unreliable truth tellers. They have an incentive towards only focusing on information that presents them well and… spinning narratives that might reflect poorly on them." [07:13]
• Moore: The decline of traditional media’s influence and resources makes them less capable of scrutinizing those in power, while governments now have far more direct communication options.
  • "States have many, many more opportunities to speak to the public... to amplify their own narratives and versions of the truth." [09:08]

Case Studies: Comparative Approaches to Dictating Reality

Russia: From Subtle Subversion to Authoritarian Control

[09:59]

• Colley: Russia shifted after February 2022 from “sophisticated, confusing” approaches (e.g., MH17, "weaponized relativism") to outright Soviet-style narrative control, including jailing dissenting voices and tightly controlling information in occupied Ukraine.
  • "Russia shifted… from having quite an edgy, subversive, subtle and sophisticated approach… to becoming far more Soviet authoritarian." [10:06]
  • "Weaponized relativism… if you get people to the point where they can't work out what's true at all, then they don't know who to trust." [10:39]
• Moore: Inside Russia, reality is flipped—e.g., Bucha is portrayed domestically as “fake news.” Russia achieves this alternate reality through aggressive information control once thought impossible in the internet age.
  • "Within Russia, they have a completely different understanding of reality than we do outside." [14:05]
  • "Every piece of reality outside has an equal and opposite reality within Russia." [14:53]

China: Singular Narratives and International Information Architecture

[16:29]

• Colley: Unlike Russia, China prefers a unified, overwhelming official narrative (“bombarding”), controls its media ecosystem more successfully (e.g., censorship, removing references unpleasant to the regime), and effectively exports its narratives globally by purchasing stakes in foreign news and building media infrastructure, especially in Africa.
  • "China tends to prefer a single narrative relayed almost bombarding people on all possible media channels..." [16:36]
  • "China has the funding behind it... it has bought stakes... distributed news... to countries throughout the world." [22:07]
• Moore: Domestically, China was always more tightly controlling than Russia; internationally, both have begun to use—sometimes blend—each other’s techniques. China excels at suppressing negative news as much as promoting positive narratives.
  • "China has been… very successful at dampening down criticism of its government..." [25:11]

Hungary: “Illiberal Democracy” and Systemic Media Co-Option

[26:01]

• Moore: Viktor Orban’s regime systematically undermined media independence—compromising regulators, purging public broadcasters, using state-favored oligarchs to capture commercial news, and stopping short of total (i.e., 100%) control to retain deniability.
  • “We know that there are co channels which mean that the government can in many cases literally dictate the news…” [28:24]
  • "It doesn't want 100% control, it only wants… 80 plus percent, because then it can say, look… there is still free media out there." [30:37]
• Colley: Orban’s team not only seized newsrooms but convinced Hungarians of a conspiracy, scapegoating outsiders like George Soros to justify media takeovers.
  • “They've actually successfully persuaded many Hungarian citizens… that some shadowy elite opponent is the one that really controls Hungarian media…” [31:05]

India: Willing Media “Lapdogs” and Hindu Nationalism

[33:20]

• Moore: Modi/BJP distinguishes “friend” and “enemy” outlets, rewarding allies with access, info, and funds and punishing critics with raids/licensing threats. Economic pressure turns major broadcast media into “Godi media” (lapdog media)—a term coined by Indian journalist Ravish Kumar.
  • “Modi has used these tools to encourage… friends, while… for those… considered enemies… you should expect… raids… legal action...” [34:03]
• Colley: Pro-regime Indian media fuel parallel realities, e.g., spreading anti-Muslim fabrications (“spit jihad,” “love jihad”) while claiming the country is threatened by the minority it oppresses.
  • “You have this inversion of reality where… the government and supportive media… claim[ing] the country is under threat from a minority group it is… oppressing.” [38:14]

Brazil: “Alternative Public Spheres” and the Power of Social Media

[40:21]

• Moore: Bolsonaro bypassed traditional media and built a robust pro-government digital ecosystem via social, especially WhatsApp, allowing networked influence, live direct-to-follower communication, and pop-up news organizations that shaped reality for millions.
  • “He did this by creating this kind of a network… of pop up news organizations… you get literally this sort of alternative public sphere…” [42:09]
  • “Many Brazilians appeared to have a sort of mass delusion.” [43:28]
• Colley: WhatsApp groups serve as incubators for echo-chamber messaging and misinformation.
  • “People said, come and join our campaign, join one of our WhatsApp groups… tiny echo chamber... pro regime messages, memes to spread out smears against opponents.” [44:48]

The Centrality of Charismatic Leaders

[46:57]

• Colley: Not a coincidence that these efforts are leader-driven; they're characteristic of populist politics, where a singular figure claims to embody the people ("I am your voice," as Trump said).
  • "These leaders are on a conscious effort to be seen as the authority on what is true and real in their society… News is one of the key means through which they try and achieve that." [48:38]
• Moore: Social media structurally amplifies individuals over institutions, echoing historical periods when personal rule (monarchs, strongmen) dominated.
  • “There are structural features of social media… which mean that people are much more likely to follow an individual than… an institution.” [49:34]

Resistance: Fact-Checkers, Open Source, and the Challenges Ahead

[51:07]

• Moore: Emergence of modern fact-checking and open source intelligence groups (e.g., Bellingcat) is crucial but fragile; they're young, underfunded, and increasingly under attack (both financially and through cooption).
  • “We are seeing… new types of truth seeker... but they're very, they're very young and they're very fragile…” [52:15]
• Colley: Disinformation actors are now imitating truth-seeking methods (e.g., Russia launched “War on Fakes” during the Ukraine war), muddying the information environment further.
  • “You'd have these open source organizations… but then their methods would be imitated by Russia to spread disinformation…” [53:54]

Notable Quotes

• Colley on Government Truth-Telling [07:13]:
  • "Governments… are often unreliable truth tellers. They have an incentive towards only focusing on information that presents them well and… spinning narratives that might reflect poorly on them."
• Moore on the Weakening Press [09:08]:
  • “So they're in a much weaker position at the same time as states have many, many more opportunities to speak to the public, to create their own media, to amplify their own voices…”
• Colley on Weaponized Relativism [10:39]:
  • “Weaponized relativism… if you get people to the point where they can't work out what's true at all, then they don't know who to trust.”
• Moore on Russia's Reality [14:53]:
  • "Every piece of reality outside has an equal and opposite reality within Russia."
• Colley on Parallel Realities [38:14]:
  • “This inversion of reality… where the government and supportive media… claim the country is under threat from a minority group it is… oppressing.”
• Moore on Digital Media and Leaders [49:34]:
  • “There are structural features of social media… people are much more likely to follow an individual than… an institution.”

Future Directions

• Colley: Working on an introduction to propaganda for general audiences to enhance civic understanding of persuasive strategies by governments and institutions [56:47].
• Moore: Writing a textbook on media and politics to contend with new realities of information and power [57:20].

Key Timestamps by Topic

• Meet the Authors & Book Origins: [02:47]–[06:00]
• Why News Control Matters: [06:37]–[09:26]
• Russia's Shift After Ukraine Invasion: [09:59]–[15:46]
• China vs Russia—Control Strategies: [16:29]–[21:40]
• China's International Narrative: [21:40]–[25:21]
• Hungary's Media Capture: [26:01]–[32:54]
• India's “Godi” Media: [32:54]–[39:04]
• Brazil’s Digital Public Sphere: [40:21]–[46:21]
• The Role of Individual Leaders: [46:57]–[50:42]
• Truth Seekers & Resistance: [51:07]–[56:27]
• Future Work: [56:47]–[57:52]

Tone & Style

The discussion balances scholarly caution and clarity with vivid, sometimes urgent, warnings about the global scope of information warfare and its effects on democracy, with examples and references kept accessible for a broad audience.

Summary Takeaway

Dictating Reality argues that the global contest to dominate public narratives—whether by sophisticated digital methods or blunt old-school censorship—is accelerating, not just among autocracies, but in democracies as well. The erosion of independent media, rise of populist leaders, and structural features of digital communication all contribute to a world where reality itself is hotly contested. However, nascent truth-seeking organizations offer a glimmer of hope, even as they face powerful, well-resourced opposition. The battle to define reality, the authors conclude, is ongoing—and its outcome is crucial for the future of democratic accountability.