Media as Mosaic: Paranoid Reading and Epistemic Uncertainty in Serbia

• In Event: 30421 - Section on Global and Transnational Sociology Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 8. Uncertain Knowledge and their Epistemic Communities

Abstract

This paper draws on ethnographic research and interviews in Serbia, where growing authoritarianism and histories of state media manipulation have made suspicion of official news sources the norm, to describe how news consumers assemble their own “mosaic” of information from different sources. In contrast to classical ideas of the public sphere, these citizens are neither reading the news to obtain information or disengaging entirely; instead, they read official texts for their omissions and lacunae, using their knowledge of media politics and structure as well as internet affordances such as Google Translate to do so. The “paranoid reading” and “hermeneutics of suspicion” that media consumers employ can be read as either conspiracy theory or media literacy, depending on the observer’s political stance and media practices; however, these practices also raise the question of how long knowledge can survive in the “hidden transcript.” This paper contributes to discussions of the varied alternative media consumption practices that arise in the face of epistemic uncertainty, moving away from producer-receiver models to show how the construction of epistemic authority is built on assemblages of social relations, verification practices, and assumed uncertainties. Moreover, by looking outside of the US and western Europe and instead focusing on cases with recent histories (and presents) of authoritarianism, we can better understand the ways in which citizens can read their governments “against the grain,” blurring the line between media consumption and political practice.

Author

• Emma E. S. Brandt, University of Waterloo