The Epistemology of the Media: New Directions

One feature of the recent applied turn in epistemology has been a sudden burst of philosophical work on "fake news." But beyond this, the epistemology of the media remains relatively underexplored within philosophy. This workshop will aim to bring together scholars both from philosophy and from fields such as communications and journalism to identify and explore new questions and problems in this important area, at a time of unique challenges for news production and consumption caused by new media technologies. We also aim to better understand how philosophy can help to inform social scientific work in this area, and vice versa. Topics for exploration might include, but are by no means limited to: 

• How should we understand the epistemology of testimony in the context of media and social media?
• Does contemporary media coverage produce too much doubt and skepticism or too little? 
• How should media outlets cover issues about which there is very widespread public disagreement?
• What are the responsibilities of news consumers in deciding which media sources to consume (if any at all)?
• What role should ideals of truth, knowledge and rationality play in a vision of contemporary journalism?