Truth and Lie in Times of Transforming Media

The general trust in science and the media is dwindling—or so it appears. This diagnosis is as well known as it is disturbing, and intense discussion of its causes did not begin just yesterday. The questions are: How new are these phenomena? Are they surprising? Or is it rather astonishing that most people indeed generally show a certain basic trust in "the media" and "science," even though they have no real knowledge of how these institutions function? What is this trust based on, and when is it lost? What does our considering something to be true depend on? What roles in this do personal authority, accustomed narrative, and procedures of knowledge production play? It is well known that digitalization is not the first media revolution that has led to a crisis of established knowledge. We don’t want so much to discuss the known effects of the digital media as to illuminate the problem from a broader, historically comparative perspective.

Three current Fellows of the Wissenschaftskolleg will discuss these issues from their own respective standpoints. Permanent Fellow Lorraine Daston will moderate the discussion. For further information on this event, please visit this website.