Your first paper will a 4-5 page (1,000-1,250 words) persuasive essay addressing the veracity of the notion that we are in an epistemic crisis and that media (il)literacy is a primary factor.
*Your essays should address what we mean by epistemic crisis in relationship to media literacy. What are its ramifications and how urgent the situation
You may lean on a critical analysis of one or more of the texts for this section to complete this assignment, or you can go “off the books” so long as you use reliable sources. You may also argue that everything is cool, we are overblowing all this and just need to chill out and trust the public’s ability to navigate the media ecosystem.
Some of the texts from this section include:
“America is Facing an Epistemic Crisis”, Vox
“Many Americans Say Made-Up News is a Critical Problem” PEW Research Center
And, most essentially, “The Art of the Real: Disinformation vs. democracy,” Katherine Cross
*think about what the manifestations of this crisis are, provide examples, and what’s at stake. (or, conversely, deflate the “moral panic” over such things as the Trump election, QAnon, The Big Life, etc)