La falsa primera vuelta al mundo. El caso de la supuesta circunnavegación china de 1421 desde el paradigma de la posverdad

José Antonio  Muñiz-Velázquez; Javier Lozano Delmar

doi:10.4185/RLCS-2019-1366

Authors

José Antonio Muñiz-Velázquez Loyola Andalucía University https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4518-3624
Javier Lozano Delmar Loyola Andalucía University https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0974-1118

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.4185/RLCS-2019-1366

Keywords:

fake news, fake history, post-truth, circumnavigation, Gavin Manzies

Abstract

Introduction. 500 years ago, Magallanes undertook a trip that would end up being, in the hands of Juan Sebastián Elcano, the first round the world. But, surprising as it may seem, not everyone accepts this historical truth. Such is the case of the book 1421: The Year China Discovered the World, published with remarkable success in 2002, and with successive editions and translations. Its author, Gavin Menzies, constructs a story about this alternative fact: a Chinese expedition completed the first globe circumnavigation a century before the Spanish expedition. Methodology. A case study research of Menzies' book and its impact is proposed. To do this, we will start with the study question: How and why a false story around a historical event is nowadays constructed and disseminated? And how this fake history is counteracted? To do that, we will analyze multiple sources of evidence such as discourses and documentation in online environment. Results. The study underlines that the impact of the book starts right during the beginning of the so-called post-truth era, and it increases coinciding with these propitious moments for the propagation of fake news and fake history. Once analyzed the evidences, it is verified how historical alternative facts like these are created, transmitted, and maintained in time, and how commercials and also propagandistic interests can be behind of something like this. Conclusions. Not even the well-known first round to the world by Magallanes-Elcano is safe from the misinformation in the current era of post-truth. It is therefore important to remember once again the need to teach and spread historical truths in a rigorous, but also attractive and seductive way. At least as much as the fake history usually does. The disruptive stories of pseudohistory and conspiracy theories always will have a huge attraction for a part of the public, a public further increasing nowadays due to the digital ecosystem in which we live.

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Author Biographies

José Antonio Muñiz-Velázquez, Loyola Andalucía University

Professor, researcher and director at the Department of Communication and Education of the Loyola University of Andalusia. PhD in Communication from the University of Seville. Bachelor’s degrees in Advertising and Public Relations, from the University of Seville, and in Psychology, from the National Distance Education University (UNED). European master’s degree in Relational, Direct and Interactive Marketing from ICEMD-ESIC Business School.

Studies in Graphic advertising at the Istituto Europeo di Design (Milan), in Social Communication of Energy and in Communication and Political Management at the Complutense University of Madrid. Programme for Leadership Development at ESADE-Loyola.

Former professor and researcher at the Pontifical University of Salamanca (2004-2008), the University of Seville (2009-2011), and Vice-Dean at the San Jorge University of Zaragoza (2011-2013), as well as director of Felicicom Lab in the latter university. Former visiting professor at the Università di Bologna, IULM di Milano, Universitá di Macerata, the Royal University of Phnom Penh (Cambodia), the Università di Siena, and Loyola Chicago University. He teaches in different postgraduate programmes in several Spanish universities. His research work revolves around persuasion and positive communication, that is, the relationship between communication (mainly advertising) and its relationship with happiness and wellbeing.

Javier Lozano Delmar, Loyola Andalucía University

Javier Lozano Delmar holds a PhD in Communication from the University of Seville. Associate Professor at Loyola University of Andalusia, in its Seville and Córdoba campuses, where he teaches courses in Communication technology, Audiovisual narrative and aesthetics and Creativity. His research activity is mainly framed in the field of digital communication and his work is mainly devoted to the study of digital technologies in advertising, active audiences and fandom, transmedia storytelling and the use of new promotional strategies for fictional content in film and television.

His latest works include several studies focusing on positive communication and his participation in the Communication Researchers League group, which has published several collective works analysing the impact of current television series. He is also one of the coordinators of the book titled Reyes, espadas cuervos y dragones. Estudio del fenómeno televisivo Juego de Tronos (“Kings, swords, crows and dragons. Study of the TV phenomenon Game of Thrones”) published by Forge in 2013.

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