Objectivity Crisis: Towards a New Epistemology of Media
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Objectivity Crisis: Towards a New Epistemology of Media Asher Brandon Caplan Danville, Virginia BA in Media Studies & Philosophy, University of Virginia, 2020 A Thesis presented to the Graduate Faculty of the University of Virginia in Candidacy for the Degree of Master of Arts Department of Media Studies May 2021 Acknowledgements I would, first of all, like to thank the members of my committee. I thank Professor Christopher Ali for serving as my chair and for giving me generous feedback on all my drafts, Professor Kevin Driscoll for giving me his precious time during sabbatical, and Professor Deborah Johnson for graciously agreeing to read this thesis from retirement. I would also like to thank Professor Elizabeth Ellcessor and the members of my thesis cohort – Parker Bach, Matt Frank, and Julia Melton – for their continuous feedback during the development, writing, and revision of this thesis. Finally, I would like to thank the various people who have had to listen to me say the word ‘reliabilism’ repeatedly in basic conversations: Sam Roche, Sergio Silva, Layne Berry, Jeff Niznik, Kaitlyn Elliott, and my parents. 1 Table of Contents Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………………………..... 1 Introduction: The Bounds of Critique in Contemporary Media Studies……………………….... 6 I. Definition of Critique………………………….…………............................................. 6 II. Critique in the Postmodern Era………………………….…………............................. 7 III. An Epistemological Problem for Media Studies………………………….………..... 8 IV. Media Studies or Philosophy?…………………………............................................. 10 Chapter 1: The Objectivity Crisis..........……….……………………………………….…….... 12 1. Material Failures: Legitimation Crisis in the United States.................................................... 13 2. Culture Wars: Postmodern Conservatism and Leftist Relativism…………………………... 15 Postmodern Conservatism.............................................................................................. 17 Relativism in Scholarship............................................................................................... 19 A Moderate Position Towards Postmodern Scholarship................................................ 21 3. Outlining the Objectivity Crisis............................................................................................... 22 The Epistemological Problem......................................................................................... 23 Modernist Reactionism................................................................................................... 26 Postmodernist Reactionism............................................................................................. 27 4. Conclusion: The Path Forward………………………….…………....................................... 28 Chapter 2: An Outline of Postmodern Epistemology………………………….…………......... 30 1. Central Themes of Postmodern Epistemologies………………………….…………............. 31 Knowledge Accumulation of Theory Choice? ………………………….….................. 32 Rejecting the Scheme-Content Division………………………….…………................. 36 Anti-Representationalism and Global Expressivism…………………………................ 42 2. Three Constraints on Postmodern Epistemologies ………………………….…………........ 46 Social Constraint ………………………….………….................................................... 46 Causal Constraint………………………….………….................................................... 50 Rational Constraint…………………………................................................................... 52 3. The Fourth Constraint: Rationality and Structural Underpinnings…………………….......... 59 Brandom’s Inferential Expressivism ………………………….………….................. 61 Relational Expressivism in Social Contexts ………………………….…………........... 63 2 4. Conclusion: Beyond Modernism and Postmodernism………………………….……............ 65 Chapter 3: Networking Knowledge: A Social Epistemology of Media……………………....... 67 1. The Raft and the Pyramid………………………….………………........................................ 68 2. An Outline of Reliabilism………………………….…………................................................ 71 Al and the White Room: Externalist and Internalist Theories of Knowledge.................. 71 Definition of Reliabilism.................................................................................................. 73 The Benefits and Limits of Reliabilism………………………….…………................... 74 Three Classes of Reliabilism............................................................................................ 80 3. Reliabilism in Social Conditions ………………………….………….................................... 83 A Brief Sketch of Social Epistemology in Analytic Philosophy …………………........ 83 Evaluation of Experts ………………………….…………............................................. 89 Representational Media or Reliable Media? ………………………….………….......... 93 Justificatory Networks………………………….…………............................................. 96 4. Defending the Theory in Light of Critical Epistemologies ………………………….…….... 99 Social Epistemology and Constructionism………………………….………….............. 99 Social Epistemology and Strong Objectivity………………………….…………......... 101 5. Conclusion ………………………….…………..................................................................... 104 Chapter 4: Media Literacy, Source Evaluation, and Verification………………………….….. 105 1. Legitimizing News Media………………………….………….............................................. 106 The Social Construction of News Content………………………….…………............. 107 Media Literacy and Fact-Checking………………………….…………........................ 110 2. Critiques of Verification Practices………………………….…………................................. 112 3. Defense of Media Literacy / Fact-Checking………………………….………….................. 115 Responses to Skepticism………………………….…………........................................ 115 Comparison of Verification Practices………………………….………….................... 117 4. Flat Earthers, Conspiratorialism, and Naïve Empiricism………………………….………... 122 Epistemological Considerations of Conspiracies ………………………….………...... 122 When Source Evaluation Goes Wrong: Zeteticism and Naïve Empiricism................... 126 Refuting Zeteticism and Naïve Empiricism………………………….…………........... 128 1) Concept Use………………………….…………....................................................... 128 3 2) Self-Refutation………………………….…………................................................... 129 3) Inconsistent Subscriptions………………………….…………................................. 131 5. Conclusion ………………………….…………..................................................................... 132 Conclusion: A New Model of Critique ………………………………...................................... 134 Bibliography………………………………………………………………………………….... 136 4 If the falsehood of his testimony would be more miraculous, than the event which he relates; then, and not till then, can he pretend to command my belief or opinion. – David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding 5 Introduction: The Bounds of Critique in Contemporary Media Studies I. Definition of Critique Critique is a double-edged sword. Ever since Kant articulated the bounds of reason in his First Critique,1 Western philosophy has been consumed by questions concerning the limits of rationality, the prospects of metaphysical speculation, the finitude of logical analysis, and the existence of an extra-subjective world. In the past century and a half, from Nietzsche to Wittgenstein to Derrida, the very idea of theory, the act of theorizing itself has been eroded and degraded time and time again. This has especially been the case in the years following the Second World War, where, every few years, the existing paradigm is challenged by one “turn” or another – the linguistic turn, the pragmatic turn, the cultural turn, the material turn. Each of these turns engage, yet again, with a form of critique, defining the limits of and the terms for academic study. But critique if self-reflexive. For Kant, the bounds of reason were to be determined only through reason itself. Likewise, the very prospects and goals of critical analysis are themselves subject to that same analysis. Critique is therefore the enemy of critique. It is its own subject or domain of study. In many respects, the point of this paper is to work from this starting thesis. If critique is itself subject to critique, then what are its bounds? And if critique is merely a product of some faculty of reason, how far can it go before it extends into irrationality? 1 Immanuel Kant, Critique of Pure Reason, trans. Paul Guyer and Allen W. Wood (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998). 6 II. Critique in the Postmodernism Era For the contemporary theorist, this talk of reason may appear as some residue of a bygone intellectual era, but one would be mistaken to think that their own objects of study are not informed by the notion of critique as I have just laid out. Even Michel Foucault, one of the foremost critics of modernism and humanism in the 20th century defined his larger aims in relation to the Kantian notion of critique.2 However, Foucault also notes that his criticism of rationalism does not necessitate an endorsement of irrationalism: I think that the central issue of philosophy and critical thought since the eighteenth century has always been, still is, and will, I hope, remain the question: What is this Reason that we use? What are its historical effects? What are its limits, and what are its dangers? How can we exist as rational beings, fortunately committed to practicing a rationality that is unfortunately