Objectivity Crisis: Towards a New Epistemology of Media

Recent political events in the United States have demonstrated that we are experiencing an objectivity crisis, an epistemic formation where institutional legitimacy has been lost and where corrective political measures to restore it are made elusive by false claims. Media studies is particularly troubled by this crisis because its past critiques and antagonisms towards objectivity now appear eerily similar to those given by right-wing demagogues. In response to this crisis, I advocate for a new epistemological paradigm in media studies developed from social epistemology which can better respond to right-wing misinformation without voiding the critical weight of past claims.