Social epistemology as a new paradigm for journalism and media studies

Godler, Igal; Reich, Zvi; Miller, Boaz

doi:10.1177/1461444819856922

Cited by 33 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 91 publications

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“…The study of the business models of the fact-checking services must be carried out taking into account the ecosystem to which they belong: that of the digital media. Cook and Sirkkunen warned a few years ago that the media should take into account the foreseeable predominance of digital reality when developing their business models [59], which has caused a profound reorganisation of work in the media [60]. Accordingly, most of the verification proposals have been developed within so-called entrepreneurial journalism [61], characterised by the primacy of the digital sphere and the use of the journalist's personal brand as a means of promotion [62].…”

Section: Theoretical Background: the Business Modelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spanish Fact-Checking Services: An Approach to Their Business Models

et al. 2021

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The proliferation of fact-checking services is a fast-growing global phenomenon, especially in Western countries. These services are the response of journalism to disinformation, that has transformed a common internal procedure of journalistic work in the core of a business directed to the general public, also offered to the companies of mass media and social media. Literature review shows that the research on fact-checking has focused on the origin, funding, relationship with the media, procedures, and experiences related to politics and COVID-19. However, the ownership structure of the fact-checking services has been superficially analysed and the business model of these platforms has not yet been studied in detail and depth. The objective of this article is to identify and analyse the business model of the nine Spanish active fact-checking services through a documentary research of public information sources and the information that these services give about themselves. This paper explains their ownership structure and income provenance, from open information sources. The findings are that the fact-checking services that depend on media groups are no strangers to the trend of opacity usual in these groups, but in the case of fact-checking services that are born as initiatives of journalists, the trend towards transparency is, in the majority of cases, clear. However, the information provided by the Spanish fact-checking services is deficient and does not allow us to discover their business models, except in the case of Newtral and, to a certain extent, Maldita.

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Section: Theoretical Background: the Business Modelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spanish Fact-Checking Services: An Approach to Their Business Models

et al. 2021

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“…In recent years, the meta-theoretical accounts of truth and truth seeking in journalism have been critically discussed in several studies (Godler et al, 2019;Munoz-Torres, 2012;Ward, 2018). What they have in common is the questioning of the dualism of positivism/empiricism and constructivism/relativism that have influenced the norms within journalism as well as the perspectives applied in journalism research.…”

Section: Critical Realism: a Meta-theoretical Accountmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Expertise is, however, more than power (Anderson, 2017). Judgmental rationality is assumed and applied in most practices of journalism: in the evaluation of sources, the design of headlines, the framing of interview quotes in edited news, and various practices of fact-checking (Graves, 2017;Reich, 2011;Godler et al, 2019;Thorsen & Jackson, 2018) . Epistemic relativism is also compatible with ontological realism, that is, the fundamental idea that structures, mechanisms, and events exist independent of the knowledge-producing activities of, for example, journalism or research.…”

Section: Critical Realism: a Meta-theoretical Accountmentioning

confidence: 99%

Epistemology and Journalism

Ekström¹,

Westlund²

2019

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Communication

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Epistemology is a central issue in journalism research. Journalism is among the most influential knowledge-producing institutions in modern society, associated with high claims of providing relevant, accurate, and verified public knowledge on a daily basis. More specifically, epistemology is the study of how, in this case, journalists and news organizations know what they know and how the knowledge claims are articulated and justified. Practices related to justification have been studied in (a) text and discourse; (b) journalist practices, norms, and routines within and outside the newsroom; and (c) audience assessment of news items and acceptance or rejection of the knowledge claims of journalism. Epistemology also includes the study of news and journalism as particular forms of knowledge. In journalism research, sociological approaches on epistemology have been developed to understand the institutionalized norms and practices in the processing of information and in socially shared and variable standards of justification, as well as in the authority of journalism in providing exclusive forms of knowledge in society. In recent years, epistemology has received increased scholarly interest in response to transformations within journalism: digitalization, emerging forms of data journalism, the acceleration of the news cycle, diminished human resources and financial pressure, and forms of audience participation.

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“…Discussions of epistemology in journalism studies, while relatively rare, have focused either on describing the beliefs and practices of journalists or on attempting to prescribe an ideal epistemological position from which to discuss and evaluate journalists' work. Related to the latter goal, for example, Godler, Reich, and Miller (2020) argue for alternatives to what they describe as a failure by scholars to address an objective reality that journalistic accounts might more or less closely resemble. Critiquing the dominant stream of journalism studies—rooted, for example, in Lippmann's (1922) proposal that facts and the news are not equivalent and Tuchman's (1972) ethnographic work, which took a strong social constructivist position on the production of knowledge—Godler et al suggest that attending only to the processes through which a claim about the world becomes accepted in a social context fails to provide ways to produce more accurate accounts of the world or guide practice when new technologies are introduced.…”

Section: Journalism and Investigationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Investigative approaches to researching information technology companies

Carter

Acker

Sholler

2021

Asso for Info Science & Tech

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Recent events reveal the potential for information technologies to threaten democratic participation and destabilize knowledge institutions. These are core concerns for researchers working within the area of critical information studies—yet these companies have also demonstrated novel tactics for obscuring their operations, reducing the ability of scholars to speak about how harms are perpetuated or to link them to larger systems. While scholars' methods and ethical conventions have historically privileged the agency of research participants, the current landscape suggests the value of exploring methods that would reveal actions that are purposefully hidden. We propose investigation as a model for critical information studies and review the methods and epistemological conventions of investigative journalists as a provocative example, noting that their orientation toward those in power enables them to discuss societal harms in ways that academic researchers often cannot. We conclude by discussing key topics, such as process accountability and institutional norms, that should feature in discussions of how academic researchers might position investigation in relation to their own work.

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Social epistemology as a new paradigm for journalism and media studies

Cited by 33 publications

References 91 publications

Spanish Fact-Checking Services: An Approach to Their Business Models

Spanish Fact-Checking Services: An Approach to Their Business Models

Epistemology and Journalism

Investigative approaches to researching information technology companies

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