Agnotology and the Epistemology of Ignorance: a Framework for the Propagation of Ignorance as a Consequence of Technology in a Balkanized Media Ecosystem

Abstract

The United States’ current ‘Age of Intellectual Darkness’ has produced a society engaged in the widespread rejection of verifiable facts and scientific data resulting in fear, xenophobia, and a threat to democracy. This article examines how the current culture of ignorance has evolved in the Postdigital Age and contributes to studies on ignorance (agnotology) by examining the sociological phenomenon of culturally induced ignorance as part of a framework for an Epistemology of Ignorance examining the role of technology and the resulting development of virtual ‘tertiary social groups,’ the restructuring of the news industry, and the creation of the current balkanized media ecosystem. A balkanized media ecosystem refers to the multiplicity of media sources that are now available and the multiplicity of powerful political institutions and commercial entities that control the development and distribution of constructed material, as well as the suppression of information, that contributes to paradigms, information, and biases. Technology’s impact on ‘tertiary social groups’ and the restructuring of the news industry which result in a balkanized media ecosystem where ignorance is culturally instilled and is derived via the viral-style dissemination of messages that can embed into the social consciousness/subconsciousness through the myriad forms of media and technology involved in media/message delivery. The Epistemology of Ignorance framework provides a starting point in which may be utilized in forthcoming investigations to further describe and explain the phenomena of cultural ignorance that may exist in the future. This framework points to the need for further research in examining how key variables might alter under different circumstances.