perspectivism Quick reference
A Dictionary of Media and Communication (3 ed.)
... See also Thomas theorem ; compare objectivism . 1. Broadly, the stance that the truth of any knowledge or fact is tied to a particular frame of reference (McGuire); see also epistemology . 2. (philosophy) A relativist and anti-objectivist theory (particularly associated with Nietzsche) that there can be radically different views of reality which are incommensurable : see also translatability . The Sapir–Whorf hypothesis is a form of perspectivism; the categorization systems of each language represent different...
perspectivism
Thomas Theorem
Thomas theorem Quick reference
A Dictionary of Media and Communication (3 ed.)
... is what Merton came to call a self-fulfilling prophecy (as in cases of ‘mind over matter’). It is at the heart of symbolic interactionism. See also constitutive models ; constructionism ; context of situation ; contextual meaning ; frame of reference ; framing ; perspectivism ; situational knowledge . ...
Sapir–Whorf hypothesis Quick reference
A Dictionary of Media and Communication (3 ed.)
...see the world may be influenced by (as well as reflected in) the kind of language in which we conventionally frame experiences ( see also emotive conjugation ; exnomination ; labelling theory ; loaded language ; markedness ). See also metaphor ; mould theory ; perspectivism . http://visual-memory.co.uk/daniel/Documents/short/whorf.html The Sapir–Whorf hypothesis ...
objectivism ((philosophy)) Quick reference
A Dictionary of Media and Communication (3 ed.)
..., and linguistic frameworks mediate human experience and reality ( see also Sapir–Whorf hypothesis ). This raises the question of whether social research can ever be ‘scientific’; for its critics, this condemns such research to epistemological relativism . Compare perspectivism . ...
relativism Quick reference
A Dictionary of Media and Communication (3 ed.)
...One characterization is the stance that there are numerous alternative versions of reality which can only be assessed in relation to each other and not in relation to any absolute, fixed, and universal truth , reality , meaning , knowledge , or certainty ( see also perspectivism ). Such categories are contingent —temporary, provisional, and dependent on context and circumstances. Relativism is an anti-essentialist position. The defence of absolutes is denounced as metaphysics . There can be no value-free facts. Critics often object to what...
post-truth Quick reference
A Dictionary of Media and Communication (3 ed.)
...just as good as your knowledge’. This is a form of radical relativism indifferent to any distinction between fact and fiction —a stance ironically reminiscent of the intellectual excesses of postmodernism (though lacking its characteristic reflexivity ); see also perspectivism . The post-truth politics that followed the financial crisis of 2008 is closely associated with a distrust of ‘experts’, science, political elites, and the mainstream media. Some have seen it as nourished by an echo chamber effect in social media —which could in turn...
translatability Quick reference
A Dictionary of Media and Communication (3 ed.)
...and that whatever we say in one language can always be translated into another. For linguistic relativists translation between one language and another is at the very least, problematic, and sometimes impossible ( see also incommensurability ; indeterminacy ; perspectivism ). Some commentators also apply this to the ‘translation’ of unverbalized thought into language. Even within a single language, some suggest that any reformulation of words has implications for meaning , however subtle: it is impossible to say exactly the same thing in...
reality Quick reference
A Dictionary of Media and Communication (3 ed.)
... differentiate differently ( see also categorization ; linguistic relativism ; Sapir–Whorf hypothesis ). However objective we may try to be, our experience of reality is unavoidably subjective —dependent on a point of view . See also objectivism ; compare perspectivism . 2. ( external reality, material reality, physical reality ) The perceptible world (including the body ) that we routinely experience as directly, immediately, unmediatedly ‘given’ by sensory data (rather than as cognitively mediated by inference ). We may acknowledge...
fake news Quick reference
A Dictionary of Media and Communication (3 ed.)
...history’, despite photographic evidence indicating otherwise. Chuck Todd, an NBC News journalist, responded: ‘Alternative facts are not facts . They are falsehoods’. See also assimilation ; confirmation bias ; liberal media ; echo chamber ; post-truth ; perspectivism ; relativism . 3. Spoof news items devised for satirical or comedic purposes (as in The Onion website). ...
