Public Service Media: From Epistemic Rights to Epistemic Justice

Abstract

Growing concerns in recent years over threats to the foundations of democratic societies posed by misinformation, hate speech, and other problems associated with digital communications have led to renewed calls for greater protection of epistemic rights within policy, advocacy, and academic fora. Institutionally mandated to promote citizenship, Public Service Media (PSM) organisations have an important role to play in supporting epistemic rights. We suggest four main conditions are required for this and in doing so we introduce the concept of epistemic injustice as a key to understanding the role of PSM. First, PSM are premised upon strong political commitment. At a time when this political commitment is dwindling, it is imperative that civil society, academia, and international organisations continue to make the case for PSM strong. Second, we argue that PSM need to evolve with the times and be allowed to use new transmission means, build new platforms, and innovate. Third, we argue that PSM have to move beyond supporting epistemic rights, as they have traditionally been bestowed, and contribute to epistemic justice, by questioning the existing power structures of knowledge. Finally, PSM need to work together with other educational and cultural institutions towards the creation of an epistemic commons, countering the privatisation of communitive spaces and striving to make knowledge accessible to all.