The elusiveness of political truth: From the conceit of objectivity to intersubjective judgement
Abstract
Political truth is never neutral, objective or absolute – that’s why it’s political. The normative realisation of democratic politics depends upon the communicability of intersubjective perspectives rather than the quest for capital-T Truth. Three key principles of political communication are set out that might strengthen the quality of intersubjective political judgment: the principle of social curiosity; the principle of collective interpretation; and the principle of working through disagreement. The article concludes by considering debates about political truth surrounding the Grenfell Tower fire in June 2017 and the need to respond to such tragedy through intersubjective judgment.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Establishing what counts as factual information is epistemologically difficult, particularly in the context of politics.
“Establishing what counts as factual information is epistemologically difficult, particularly in the context of politics (9);”
From Psychological inoculation improves resilience against misinformation on social media (2022) · cites this paper as [9]
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Cites
The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays
Thompson, E. M., Bakhtin, M. M., Holquist, M., Emerson, C. G., & Holquist, M. (1981) · World Literature Today · doi:10.2307/40136453 · Cited by 9,743 · see citing works
Representing and Intervening: Introductory Topics in the Philosophy of Natural Science
Hacking, I. (1983) · doi:10.1017/cbo9780511814563 · Cited by 4,814 · see citing works
Miller, P., & Rose, N. (1990) · Economy and Society · doi:10.1080/03085149000000001 · Cited by 2,877 · cited 1× · see citing works
“As Miller and Rose (1990) put it, From the eighteenth-century invention of statistics as the science of state, to the present attempts to evaluate the economic life of the nation by measuring the money supply or the efficiency of health services by turning their endeavours into cash equivalents,…”
BackgroundOn Justification: Economies of Worth
Boltanski, L., & Thévenot, L. (2006) · doi:10.1515/9781400827145 · Cited by 2,709 · see citing works
Between past and future eight exercises in political thought
Arendt, H. (1987) · Cited by 2,385 · see citing works
Red Media, Blue Media: Evidence of Ideological Selectivity in Media Use
Iyengar, S., & Hahn, K. S. (2009) · Journal of Communication · doi:10.1111/j.1460-2466.2008.01402.x · Cited by 1,940 · see citing works
Trust in Numbers: The Pursuit of Objectivity in Science and Public Life
Porter, T. M. (1995) · doi:10.1515/9781400821617 · Cited by 1,431 · see citing works
Ostler, N. (1998) · Language · doi:10.2307/417928 · Cited by 783 · see citing works
Suspensions of Perception: Attention, Spectacle, and Modern Culture
Seigel, J., & Crary, J. (2000) · The American Historical Review · doi:10.2307/2652045 · Cited by 670 · see citing works
The `Economics of Attention: Style and Substance in the Age of Information
Lanham, R. A. (2006) · Cited by 631 · see citing works
Making a social body: British cultural formation, 1830-1864
(1996) · Choice Reviews Online · doi:10.5860/choice.34-0469 · Cited by 524 · see citing works
The Internet and Democratic Citizenship
Coleman, S. R., & Blumler, J. G. (2009) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/cbo9780511818271 · Cited by 504 · see citing works
Self-citationBrundidge, J. (2010) · Journal of Communication · doi:10.1111/j.1460-2466.2010.01509.x · Cited by 440 · see citing works
Polarized Political Communication, Oppositional Media Hostility, and Selective Exposure
Arceneaux, K., Johnson, M., & Murphy, C. (2012) · The Journal of Politics · doi:10.1017/s002238161100123x · Cited by 328 · see citing works
The Politics of Large Numbers: a History of Statistical Reasoning
Teugels, J. L. (2003) · Journal of the American Statistical Association · doi:10.1198/jasa.2003.s304 · Cited by 290 · see citing works
The Myth of Partisan Selective Exposure: A Portrait of the Online Political News Audience
Nelson, J. L., & Webster, J. G. (2017) · Social Media + Society · doi:10.1177/2056305117729314 · Cited by 267 · see citing works
Doyle, G. (2002) · SAGE Publications Ltd eBooks · doi:10.4135/9781446219942 · Cited by 256 · see citing works
(2013) · Choice Reviews Online · doi:10.5860/choice.50-6585 · Cited by 206 · see citing works
Fables of Responsibility: Aberrations and Predicaments in Ethics and Politics
Keenan, T. (1997) · Cited by 199 · see citing works
The Friendly Media Phenomenon: A Cross-National Analysis of Cross-Cutting Exposure
Goldman, S. K., & Mutz, D. C. (2011) · Political Communication · doi:10.1080/10584609.2010.544280 · Cited by 183 · see citing works
Boczkowski, P. J., & de Santos, M. (2007) · Political Communication · doi:10.1080/10584600701313025 · Cited by 177 · see citing works
Knobloch-Westerwick, S., Johnson, B. K., & Westerwick, A. (2015) · Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication · doi:10.1111/jcc4.12105 · Cited by 167 · see citing works
Schweber, L. (2006) · Duke University Press eBooks · doi:10.1215/9780822388524 · Cited by 165 · see citing works
Hirschkop, K. (1999) · Oxford University Press eBooks · doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198159612.001.0001 · Cited by 127 · see citing works
Lectures on Kant’s Political Philosophy
Ring, E. (1984) · Idealistic Studies · doi:10.5840/idstudies198414327 · Cited by 114 · see citing works
Figures of Arithmetic, Figures of Speech: The Discourse of Statistics in the 1830s
Poovey, M. (1993) · Critical Inquiry · doi:10.1086/448674 · Cited by 104 · see citing works
Exposure to Ideological News and Perceived Opinion Climate
Tsfati, Y., Stroud, N., & Chotiner, A. (2014) · The International Journal of Press/Politics · doi:10.1177/1940161213508206 · Cited by 104 · see citing works
Politically Motivated Selective Exposure and Perceived Media Bias
Barnidge, M., Gunther, A. C., Kim, J., Hong, Y., Perryman, M. R., Tay, S. K., & Knisely, S. (2017) · Communication Research · doi:10.1177/0093650217713066 · Cited by 96 · see citing works
Conceptualizing viewpoint diversity in news discourse
Baden, C., & Springer, N. (2015) · Journalism · doi:10.1177/1464884915605028 · Cited by 91 · see citing works
Resisting Political Fragmentation on the Internet
Garrett, R. K., & Resnick, P. (2011) · Daedalus · doi:10.1162/daed_a_00118 · Cited by 74 · see citing works
What (Good) is Historical Epistemology? Editors’ Introduction
Feest, U., & Sturm, T. (2011) · Erkenntnis · doi:10.1007/s10670-011-9345-4 · Cited by 74 · see citing works
Promoting Civil Discourse Through Search Engine Diversity
Yom‐Tov, E., Dumais, S., & Guo, Q. (2013) · Social Science Computer Review · doi:10.1177/0894439313506838 · Cited by 67 · see citing works
(2017) · Oxford University Press eBooks · doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190652807.001.0001 · Cited by 57 · see citing works
Credibility assessment: Preliminary Process Theory, the polygraph process, and construct validity
Palmatier, J. J., & Rovner, L. (2014) · International Journal of Psychophysiology · doi:10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2014.06.001 · Cited by 45 · see citing works
Two Types of Interpersonal Listening
Waks, L. J. (2010) · Teachers College Record The Voice of Scholarship in Education · doi:10.1177/016146811011201109 · Cited by 44 · see citing works
Can the internet strengthen democracy?
Kovalyova, N. (2018) · New Media & Society · doi:10.1177/1461444818776939b · Cited by 39 · see citing works
Coleman, S. R. (2012) · Television & New Media · doi:10.1177/1527476411433520 · Cited by 37 · see citing works
Self-citationPenman, R. (2000) · Routledge eBooks · doi:10.4324/9781410605832 · Cited by 30 · see citing works
Can the Mass Media Deliberate?: Insights from Print Media and Political Talk Shows
Weßler, H., & Schultz, T. (2007) · Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks · doi:10.1057/9780230206359_2 · Cited by 28 · see citing works
Quantification and Objectivity. From Statistical Conventions to Social Conventions
Salais, R. (2016) · Social Science Open Access Repository (GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences) · doi:10.12759/hsr.41.2016.2.118-134 · Cited by 27 · see citing works
Nussbaum, M. C. (2001) · New Literary History · doi:10.1353/nlh.2001.0056 · Cited by 20 · see citing works
Political Judgment with a Difference: Agonistic Democracy and the Limits of "Enlarged Mentality"
Feldman, L. C. (1999) · Polity · doi:10.2307/3235331 · Cited by 19 · see citing works
Poor numbers, poor news: the ideology of poverty statistics in the media
Lugo‐Ocando, J., & Lawson, B. T. (2017) · White Rose Research Online (University of Leeds, The University of Sheffield, University of York) · Cited by 4 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
1 of the 44 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.
Research works printed but not linked: 1
- Beiner, R., 2013. Political Judgement (Routledge Library Editions: Political Science Volume 20) (Vol. 20). Routledge.
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Psychological inoculation improves resilience against misinformation on social media
Roozenbeek, J., van der Linden, S., Goldberg, B., Rathje, S., & Lewandowsky, S. (2022) · Science Advances · doi:10.1126/sciadv.abo6254 · Cited by 472 · see citing works
(Why) Is Misinformation a Problem?
Adams, Z., Osman, M., Bechlivanidis, C., & Meder, B. (2023) · Perspectives on Psychological Science · doi:10.1177/17456916221141344 · Cited by 130 · see citing works
Roozenbeek, J., Culloty, E., & Suiter, J. (2023) · European Psychologist · doi:10.1027/1016-9040/a000492 · Cited by 136 · see citing works
Andersen, J., & Søe, S. O. (2019) · European Journal of Communication · doi:10.1177/0267323119894489 · Cited by 77 · see citing works
Ibrishimova, M. D., & Li, K. F. (2019) · Advances in intelligent systems and computing · doi:10.1007/978-3-030-29035-1_22 · Cited by 68 · see citing works
Fact-Checking Misinformation: Eight Notes on Consensus Reality
Vinhas, O., & Bastos, M. (2022) · Journalism Studies · doi:10.1080/1461670x.2022.2031259 · Cited by 65 · see citing works
Edwards, L. (2020) · European Journal of Communication · doi:10.1177/0267323120966851 · Cited by 60 · see citing works
Conspiracist cognition: chaos, convenience, and cause for concern
Lewandowsky, S. (2021) · Journal for Cultural Research · doi:10.1080/14797585.2021.1886423 · Cited by 32 · see citing works
Post-presumption argumentation and the post-truth world: on the conspiracy rhetoric of Donald Trump
Neville-Shepard, R. (2019) · Argumentation and Advocacy · doi:10.1080/10511431.2019.1603027 · Cited by 24 · see citing works
Hohlfeld, R., Harnischmacher, M., Heinke, E., Lehner, L. S., Sengl, M., & Verlagsgesellschaft, N. (2020) · Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG eBooks · doi:10.5771/9783748901334 · Cited by 26 · see citing works
Populist disruption and the fourth age of political communication
Sorensen, L. (2023) · European Journal of Communication · doi:10.1177/02673231231184702 · Cited by 22 · see citing works
Truthfulness, pluralism and the ethics of democratic representation
Bellamy, R., & Kröger, S. (2024) · The British Journal of Politics and International Relations · doi:10.1177/13691481241287185 · Cited by 16 · see citing works
Political science, punditry, and the Corbyn problem
Allen, P. (2019) · British Politics · doi:10.1057/s41293-019-00115-6 · Cited by 16 · see citing works
Hansson, S., & Kröger, S. (2020) · The British Journal of Politics and International Relations · doi:10.1177/1369148120974009 · Cited by 16 · see citing works
Sharevski, F., & Zeidieh, A. N. (2023) · New Security Paradigms Workshop · doi:10.1145/3633500.3633502 · Cited by 17 · see citing works
Lawson, B. T., & Lovatt, M. D. (2020) · European Journal of Communication · doi:10.1177/0267323120966842 · Cited by 8 · see citing works
VoxPop: An Experimental Social Media Platform for Calibrated (Mis)information Discourse
Sharevski, F., Jachim, P., Pieroni, E., & Jachim, N. (2021) · New Security Paradigms Workshop · doi:10.1145/3498891.3498893 · Cited by 14 · see citing works
Verhalle, P., & Loos, E. F. (2025) · Societies · doi:10.3390/soc15060155 · Cited by 6 · see citing works
Oswald, M. (2020) · Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG eBooks · doi:10.5771/9783748901334-61 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
Wilczek, B., & Thurman, N. (2021) · Journalism · doi:10.1177/14648849211032081 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
The great get together as an experiment in convivial politics
Parry, K. (2020) · European Journal of Communication · doi:10.1177/0267323120928236 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
What To Do About Conspiracy Theories?
Drążkiewicz, E., & Harambam, J. (2024) · Routledge eBooks · doi:10.4324/9781032647463 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
Hannah Arendt and the contemporary social construction of conspiracy theoristsPreprint
Lewandowsky, S. (2020) · doi:10.31234/osf.io/fm8yg · Cited by 3 · see citing works
Coleman, S. R. (2021) · Oxford University Press eBooks · doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190863456.013.50
Self-citation(Pos)verdad y política en la democracia liberal
Maldonado, M. A. (2023) · Quaderns de Filosofia · doi:10.7203/qfia.10.2.26576
How to Bring Truth and Politics Closer Again? According to Saint Thomas Aquinas
Silva, R. M. (2025) · Emerald Group Publishing Limited eBooks · doi:10.1108/978-1-83708-990-120251010
Shouman, L. (2025) · IGI Global eBooks · doi:10.4018/979-8-3373-3852-1.ch006
Triple trouble: rethinking the framing of problematic information
Altuncu, E. (2026) · Journal of Documentation · doi:10.1108/jd-01-2026-0057
- Authors
- Coleman, S.
- Affiliations
- University of Leeds (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Coleman, S
- ORCID
- Coleman, S
- Venue
- European Journal of Communication
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2018-03-02
- Volume
- 33
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 157-171
- ISSN
- 0267-3231 (ISSN-L)
- 1460-3705
- OpenAlex
- W2791576592
- Cited by
- 29
- References
- 44
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 7 · 2019: 4
- FWCI
- 16.32
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- European Journal of Communication (publishedVersion)
- White Rose Research Online (University of Leeds, The University of Sheffield, University of York) (acceptedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Political Theory and Democracy
- Social Sciences › Communication › Media Studies and Communication
- Social Sciences › Education › Critical Theory and Political Philosophy
- Keywords
- political truth, objectivity, intersubjectivity, political judgment, democratic politics, political communication, social curiosity, collective interpretation, Grenfell Tower fire, truth claims
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
