Everyone is right: media, democracy & the problem of knowing

BRLSI’s Democracy Under Threat series invites you to pause and take stock by surveying the wealth of history and political thinking which underpins our long-held democratic systems and institutions. It explores the laying down of democratic principles from Ancient Athens to the present day, and takes in current scenarios in international geopolitics, while considering Britain as its own small island with its own set of political traditions.

The word propaganda has become almost unavoidable in political debate, invoked to explain wars, elections, public health and social media. Yet the experts who study propaganda disagree profoundly about what counts as evidence, what can reasonably be inferred, and when certainty is justified.

What if this disagreement reflects expert limitations, but also reveals a deeper problem facing democratic citizens? Why do intelligent citizens, journalists and scholars reach radically different conclusions about the same events?

Drawing on two decades of research into media and international politics – from Hollywood to Moscow – this talk argues that one of the greatest challenges facing us is not simply deciding what is true, but how to reason when evidence is incomplete. Rather than asking who is right, it explores why experts reach such different conclusions, how we should evaluate competing claims, and what democratic citizens can reasonably know in an age of weaponised narratives.

Dr Matthew Alford, University of Bath