“They Say One Thing and Mean Another” How Differences in In-Group Understandings of Key Goals Shape Political Knowledge
Journalists and politicians play different roles in the functional structure of the Habermasian public sphere; as such, they might be expected to have different understandings of what knowledge production and transmission might mean. This difference of understanding is more than a conflict over defi...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Sciendo
2015-06-01
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| Series: | Nordicom Review |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1515/nor-2015-0003 |
| _version_ | 1797712528781869056 |
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| author | Vähämaa Miika West Mark D. |
| author_facet | Vähämaa Miika West Mark D. |
| author_sort | Vähämaa Miika |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Journalists and politicians play different roles in the functional structure of the Habermasian public sphere; as such, they might be expected to have different understandings of what knowledge production and transmission might mean. This difference of understanding is more than a conflict over definitions; it is an epistemic divergence à la Fuller (2002:220), where already defined groups hold divergent understandings of what constitutes understanding. While a substantial body of work has been based on the idea of epistemic communities in the context of science and expert organizations in general, little empirical research exists to demonstrate the validity and adaptability of the concept of epistemic communities in comparative political communication research. Here, we show the cross-national validity of the concept of epistemic communities in the context of professional groups of politicians and political journalists in Austria, Finland, France, Denmark, Germany, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T07:23:05Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-3b27fa912e3c4a33a7e2f5e1986b88be |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2001-5119 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T07:23:05Z |
| publishDate | 2015-06-01 |
| publisher | Sciendo |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Nordicom Review |
| spelling | doaj.art-3b27fa912e3c4a33a7e2f5e1986b88be2023-09-02T22:16:42ZengSciendoNordicom Review2001-51192015-06-01361193410.1515/nor-2015-0003“They Say One Thing and Mean Another” How Differences in In-Group Understandings of Key Goals Shape Political KnowledgeVähämaa Miika0West Mark D.1Department of Social Research, University of HelsinkiDepartment of Mass Communication, University of North Carolina at Asheville, USAJournalists and politicians play different roles in the functional structure of the Habermasian public sphere; as such, they might be expected to have different understandings of what knowledge production and transmission might mean. This difference of understanding is more than a conflict over definitions; it is an epistemic divergence à la Fuller (2002:220), where already defined groups hold divergent understandings of what constitutes understanding. While a substantial body of work has been based on the idea of epistemic communities in the context of science and expert organizations in general, little empirical research exists to demonstrate the validity and adaptability of the concept of epistemic communities in comparative political communication research. Here, we show the cross-national validity of the concept of epistemic communities in the context of professional groups of politicians and political journalists in Austria, Finland, France, Denmark, Germany, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.https://doi.org/10.1515/nor-2015-0003group epistemologyepistemic communitypolitical communicationsocial psychology of knowledgepublic spherehabermasconfirmatory factor analysis. |
| spellingShingle | Vähämaa Miika West Mark D. “They Say One Thing and Mean Another” How Differences in In-Group Understandings of Key Goals Shape Political Knowledge Nordicom Review group epistemology epistemic community political communication social psychology of knowledge public sphere habermas confirmatory factor analysis. |
| title | “They Say One Thing and Mean Another” How Differences in In-Group Understandings of Key Goals Shape Political Knowledge |
| title_full | “They Say One Thing and Mean Another” How Differences in In-Group Understandings of Key Goals Shape Political Knowledge |
| title_fullStr | “They Say One Thing and Mean Another” How Differences in In-Group Understandings of Key Goals Shape Political Knowledge |
| title_full_unstemmed | “They Say One Thing and Mean Another” How Differences in In-Group Understandings of Key Goals Shape Political Knowledge |
| title_short | “They Say One Thing and Mean Another” How Differences in In-Group Understandings of Key Goals Shape Political Knowledge |
| title_sort | they say one thing and mean another how differences in in group understandings of key goals shape political knowledge |
| topic | group epistemology epistemic community political communication social psychology of knowledge public sphere habermas confirmatory factor analysis. |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1515/nor-2015-0003 |
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