I-Pistemology: Changing truth claims in popular and political culture

Abstract

This article introduces the notion of I-pistemology to capture a contemporary cultural process in which people from all walks of life have come to suspect the knowledge coming from official institutions and experts, and have replaced it with the truth coming from their own individual experience and opinions. While, at present, such personal experiences are successfully mobilized by the new right in Europe, the author argues that I-pistemology is also the result of critical theory and movements that have identified ‘knowledge’ as an instrument of power that needs to be contested. In addition online and offline popular culture have raised personal experience to the level of the only relevant truth. In conclusion, the article discusses the repercussions of I-pistemology for policy and progressive politics.

Media representations and children’s discourses on online risks: Findings from qualitative research in nine European countries

“…Therefore, we assume that social representations of cyberbullying rely more on narratives, vocabularies and anecdotes circulating among peers via word of mouth, while "stranger danger" is socially constructed as an online risk through a deeper adhesion to media frames and language. Moreover, we hypothesize age, gender and country variations in the discursive repertoires, whereby younger children, who have a limited online experience, are more vulnerable to media representations, while teenagers co-construct online risks through engagement with peers -and, therefore, differences in the process of the self-epistemology and self-reflexivity of risk (Lewis, 2006;van Zoonen, 2012).…”

Constructing the Other: News media representations of a predominantly ‘brown’ community in New Zealand

“…Despite increasing public suspicion about knowledge produced by official institutions, including the mainstream media (van Zoonen, 2012), the news media's purportedly objective presentation of information creates a context in which audiences are more likely to view it as a reliable and legitimate source of knowledge about different ethnic and social groups (Maharey, 1990;Spoonley, 1990). For Couldry (2000), it is the individual's belief in media authority, to tell the truth, which gives the media influence over our lives.…”

The image of trust: Readers' views on the trustworthiness of news photographs

“…Vanacker & Belmas, 2009;Harwood, 2004;Tsfati & Cappella, 2003). In recent years, the capacity of the news media to reflect social reality and also take part in it has also been a subject of debate (see Coleman, 2012;Van Zoonen, 2012;Quandt, 2012;Coleman et al, 2009;Kohring & Matthes, 2007). Some scandalous manipulations of news photographs have also been said to undermine the trustworthiness of news media (see e.g.…”