Learning Through Media-Based Public Discussions: Experience Versus Reality

This chapter argues that informal learning is crucial for a functioning public discussion and for a democratic society. However, public discussion is characteristically a plural situation without teacher-like epistemic authorities, which makes the learning from public discussion in media epistemically plural. Therefore, by analyzing the experience of learning, I argue that the experience of learning may not always correspond to reality: a subject may have a genuine experience of learning, while the “learnt” content is actually false information or harmful attitudes. The false experience of learning may be applied to the spread of mis- or disinformation in public discussion in media: many persons may experience learning while they have actually acquired false information.