Fake News and the Politics of Truth
Fake news spread online is a clear danger to democratic politics. One aspect of that danger is obvious: it spreads misinformation. But other aspects, less often discussed, is that it also spreads confusion, undermines trust and encourages us to live in a kind of epistemic bad faith. In this talk, I will argue that it is this last aspect that captures the most pernicious effect of fake news and related propaganda. In particular, I’ll argue that its effectiveness is due in part to a curious blindness on the part of many users of social media: a kind of semantic blindness to the function of their online communicative acts. This blindness makes us not only vulnerable to manipulation to those with a better understanding of the semantic character of online communication, it indirectly undermines the political value of truth—or more exactly, the pursuit of truth, by diminishing confidence in the institutions that protect and encourage that value.
Date: 27 September 2018, 17:30
Venue: Lecture Theatre
Speaker: Professor Michael Lynch (University of Connecticut)
Organising department: Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics
Organiser: Dr Michael Robillard (University of Oxford)
Organiser contact email address: rachel.gaminiratne@philosophy.ox.ac.uk
Host: Dr Michael Robillard (University of Oxford)
Topics:
Booking required?: Required
Booking url: https://bookwhen.com/uehiro
Cost: Free
Audience: Public
Editor: Rachel Gaminiratne