Date on Senior Honors Thesis

5-2025

Document Type

Senior Honors Thesis

Degree Name

B.A.

Department

Philosophy

Degree Program

College of Arts and Sciences

Committee Chair

Avery Kolers

Author's Keywords

misinformation; epistemic justification; knowledge acquisition; media trust; Dominion Voting Systems, Inc. v. Fox News Network, LLC; veritism

Abstract

Political misinformation has become an increasingly prominent topic of discussion among scholars across disciplines, particularly in the wake of the 2020 American presidential election. Despite growing scholarly interest in this phenomenon, however, contemporary research has yet to examine misinformation alongside traditional epistemological theory. This thesis aims to remedy this gap by synthesizing classical epistemology, journalism and media research, and political science to investigate the impact of misinformation on political knowledge acquisition. To accomplish this goal, the analysis will focus on the justification condition, conceptualized according to both internalist and externalist perspectives. The internalism section will cast misinformation as a form of expert testimony in the context of testimonial internalism, and then, consider its connection to motivated reasoning under internalist coherentism. The externalist analysis will utilize reliabilism to conduct a veritistic analysis of the contemporary media institution. To build on this theoretical framework, this thesis will analyze Dominion Voting Systems, Inc. v. Fox News Network, LLC to further elucidate the detrimental impact of political misinformation on epistemic processes. Ultimately, this work will clarify how misinformation affects both political knowledge acquisition and democratic processes, and so provide a novel framework for developing strategies to attenuate its influence.

Lay Summary

Scholarly interest in political misinformation has become especially acute following the 2020 presidential election; however, existing research has not yet combined media studies or political perspectives with scholarship regarding the philosophy of knowledge. The purpose of this thesis is to resolve this oversight by investigating the impact of misinformation on the ability to acquire knowledge. This thesis will utilize prevailing philosophical theories to argue that misinformation presents a problem for both knowledge acquisition and democratic security – a claim which it evidences by analyzing the misinformation campaign at issue in Dominion Voting Systems, Inc. v. Fox News Network, LLC. Ultimately, this thesis will provide a clearer understanding of the threat that misinformation poses to American democratic processes, and so allow for more precise intervention strategies.

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