Doubt in Postmodernity : The Communicative Process of Fixating Beliefs
(2021) MKVM13 20211Media and Communication Studies
Department of Communication and Media
- Abstract
- This thesis examines how ideas of truth and knowledge are created, maintained, and negotiated within the context of a community through means of communication. This is achieved by conducting a case study which highlights the social processes of deconstructing and reconstructing ideas of truth. The empirical material analyzed is the podcast Another Name For Every Thing, featuring Franciscan friar Father Richard Rohr along with Brie Stoner and Paul Swanson. The show is produced by the Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
A prime concept that is utilized in this thesis is that of viewing our understanding of truth claims as ‘fixations of belief’. This idea stems from the philosophical school of American... (More) - This thesis examines how ideas of truth and knowledge are created, maintained, and negotiated within the context of a community through means of communication. This is achieved by conducting a case study which highlights the social processes of deconstructing and reconstructing ideas of truth. The empirical material analyzed is the podcast Another Name For Every Thing, featuring Franciscan friar Father Richard Rohr along with Brie Stoner and Paul Swanson. The show is produced by the Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
A prime concept that is utilized in this thesis is that of viewing our understanding of truth claims as ‘fixations of belief’. This idea stems from the philosophical school of American Pragmatism, founded by Charles Sanders Peirce, and the argument it makes is that what we have access to are the concrete, material consequences of our ideas of meaning, truth, or conceptualization of reality, rather than meaning itself as a separate, metaphysical entity. In short: a sign is its meaning. Physical money could be used as an analogy: a paper bill represents value to a specific community, but simultaneously it is its value. Furthermore, meaning is here understood as necessarily produced within communities. The implications of this perspective is that what we understand as true can be socially de- and reconstructed, which this research demonstrates through its case study.
This research concludes that communication plays a vital role in forming and shaping our understanding of truth and knowledge, in part due to its ability to effect renegotiation of meaning, and also due to its capacity for creating communities in which such renegotiation is possible. New media, such as podcasts, makes the formation of de- and reconstruction communities possible on an unprecedented, global scale, which is why the study of ’truth production’ processes is highly relevant to the discipline of Media and Communication Studies. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9050974
- author
- Enochsson, Marcus LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- MKVM13 20211
- year
- 2021
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- truth, meaning, postmodernity, American pragmatism, religion, podcast, communication
- language
- English
- id
- 9050974
- date added to LUP
- 2021-07-19 08:40:26
- date last changed
- 2021-07-19 08:40:26
@misc{9050974,
abstract = {{This thesis examines how ideas of truth and knowledge are created, maintained, and negotiated within the context of a community through means of communication. This is achieved by conducting a case study which highlights the social processes of deconstructing and reconstructing ideas of truth. The empirical material analyzed is the podcast Another Name For Every Thing, featuring Franciscan friar Father Richard Rohr along with Brie Stoner and Paul Swanson. The show is produced by the Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
A prime concept that is utilized in this thesis is that of viewing our understanding of truth claims as ‘fixations of belief’. This idea stems from the philosophical school of American Pragmatism, founded by Charles Sanders Peirce, and the argument it makes is that what we have access to are the concrete, material consequences of our ideas of meaning, truth, or conceptualization of reality, rather than meaning itself as a separate, metaphysical entity. In short: a sign is its meaning. Physical money could be used as an analogy: a paper bill represents value to a specific community, but simultaneously it is its value. Furthermore, meaning is here understood as necessarily produced within communities. The implications of this perspective is that what we understand as true can be socially de- and reconstructed, which this research demonstrates through its case study.
This research concludes that communication plays a vital role in forming and shaping our understanding of truth and knowledge, in part due to its ability to effect renegotiation of meaning, and also due to its capacity for creating communities in which such renegotiation is possible. New media, such as podcasts, makes the formation of de- and reconstruction communities possible on an unprecedented, global scale, which is why the study of ’truth production’ processes is highly relevant to the discipline of Media and Communication Studies.}},
author = {{Enochsson, Marcus}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Doubt in Postmodernity : The Communicative Process of Fixating Beliefs}},
year = {{2021}},
}