The cinematic lens on post-truth: analyzing information, credibility, and ethical failure in contemporary cinema

This article examines how contemporary cinema represents challenges to media credibility in the digital age through three recent films: Don’t Look Up (2021), Leave the World Behind (2023), and Civil War (2024). Employing a qualitative methodology, this study integrates Cultivation, Agenda-Setting, and Framing theories with normative frameworks—Deontology, Consequentialism, and Virtue Ethics—to dissect these cinematic narratives. The findings reveal a pervasive crisis of trust in institutional sources, the deliberate impact of disinformation, and profound ethical dilemmas confronting modern communicators. By juxtaposing these portrayals with academic research, this paper demonstrates how these films function as pedagogical allegories exposing the systemic vulnerabilities of the post-truth era. Rather than merely reflecting societal crises, these narratives serve as vital case studies articulating the necessity for “radical media ethics,” underscoring an urgent demand for critical media literacy and a fundamental re-evaluation of public truth.