Mill and the Limits of Freedom of Expression

2018 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Johann Go ◽  

The rise of fake news, climate change denial, and the anti-vaccination movement all pose important challenges to contemporary views about freedom of expression. This paper attempts to delineate the limits of freedom of expression, specifically with regard to truth, lies, and harm. My strategy is to offer a critical reading of John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty to demonstrate its enduring relevance to contemporary issues in the freedom of expression. My critical reading of Mill provides guidance on when state interference is justified, the role of education, the nature of harm in the age of mass media and globalisation, and the relevance of truth and lies in the freedom of expression. Ultimately, I demonstrate that the Millian account I present can deal adequately with contemporary issues in the freedom of expression in line with the current social context, relevant empirical facts, and our considered judgements.

Author(s):  
Duncan Pritchard

Throughout history, scepticism and the urge to question accepted truths has been a powerful force for change and growth. A healthy amount of scepticism is widely encouraged, but when is such scepticism legitimate and when is it problematic? Scepticism: A Very Short Introduction explores both the advantages of scepticism and how it can have unhelpful social consequences in generating distrust. It considers the role of scepticism as the source of contemporary social and political movements such as climate change denial, post-truth politics, and fake news. It also examines the philosophical arguments for a radical form of scepticism, which maintains that knowledge is impossible.


2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-76
Author(s):  
Jan R. Riebling ◽  
Ina von der Wense

The recent growth of alternative media sites and sources has also seen the rise of an aggressive rhetoric decrying mass media or parts thereof as being untrustworthy and politically biased. While it is unclear whether the fake news debate is directly connected with this, it is surely a framing of mass media. In this article, we use techniques of quantitative text analysis in order to analyse how the fake news frame is structured and to understand its central determinants in terms of social context and political orientation. Using quantitative text analysis, we analyse the frame usage and semantic embeddedness in eight blogs. We find evidence for a generalised frame that tends to be independent of political orientation of the blog.


2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 666-670 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fidel González-Quiñones ◽  
Juan D Machin-Mastromatteo

We present a classification of the types of censorship of media to frame the various issues that journalism and freedom of expression face in Mexico, which mainly include the role of the State in preventing or enforcing censorship, the monopoly of a few corporate groups that control most of the mass media and dictate fixed editorial lines throughout all of them, the effect of violence on journalism and the issues that are emerging around the freedom of expression in social media.


Author(s):  
Adebowale Jeremy Adetayo

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about a surge of fake news on social media. This dilemma has caused a ripple effect in society with increasing censorship on social media, which threatens the freedom of expression. The populace cannot effectively progress until they understand the threat posed by fake news and censorship. To protect our fundamental rights of expression, society must learn from librarians. The chapter explores the role of librarians in mitigating fake news. The chapter also identifies possible societal consequences of fake news. The chapter concludes that librarians should inoculate the public to pre-empt them from accepting fake news.


Hard White ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 121-140
Author(s):  
Richard C. Fording ◽  
Sanford F. Schram

Chapter 6 focuses on the role of a changing media landscape in disseminating misinformation to a disproportionately underinformed audience to support Donald Trump. It shows how the Trump campaign and its allies, including the contract firm Cambridge Analytica as well as Russian operatives, exploited the changing media landscape to spread misinformation to sow racial division and stoke white outgroup hostility. The chapter examines the nexus between Fox News, fake news, and Trump to provide evidence of the specific connection that demonstrates the key role of the mass media, social media included, in disseminating misinformation about outgroups and sustaining high levels of outgroup hostility among whites.


Author(s):  
Lukman A. ◽  
Junmei J. ◽  
Mohammed G.K.

This study/paper/research work shows the role of Media, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and sustainable development in Nigeria; it aimed to improve lives in many other ways, such as through education, skill development, new services creation, innovation and automation, freedom of expression through mass media and expose corrupt practices in Nigeria, although the primary responsibilities of the media is to entertain without words falsely spoken that damage the reputation of one another, inform based on accurate facts and educate on current relevant issues. But not withstanding Media, Information and Communication Technology make a significant impact in sustainable and development in Nigeria.


2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 108-117
Author(s):  
Patrick Howard

A Review of Clingerman, F., Treanor, B., Drenthen, M., and Utsler, D. (Eds.) Interpreting Nature: The emerging field of environmental hermeneutics.


Author(s):  
OKSANA KUSHNIR ◽  
TETIANA RESHETUKHA

Today medias have substantial influence on development of young personality. All without an exception mass media, and especially on-line-space, offering the recipients unbelievable amount of information content, come forward as effective factors of formation of one’s own opinion, development of conception of collective activity, strategy of public policy on local and global scales. Therefore, formation of critical immunity for teachers and students is a necessity. In the context of modern mass-informative manipulations fake news – untruthful reports which are purposefully widespread for the sake of misleading an audience – had become very popular. The aim of this publication is to pay attention to problem of fake reports in mediaspace, to define the criteria of fake news authentication, the most obvious threats of distribution of untruthful news and ways of counteraction of misinformation for the sake of formation of critical immunity of future teachers in the conditions of global information conflicts. The authors of the article considered the concept of fake news, outlined the reasons of active fake news pandemic, paid attention to cases of purposeful distribution of untruthful media reports for the sake of misleading an audience. The complexity of authentication of fake information, that is distributed through traditional mass-media and internet-medias, especially social networks has been marked. There have been presented different fake news classification approaches according to methods of transmission, forms, maintenance, markers. Importance of awareness of audience has been highlighted along with the possibilities of verification of the perceived and intended for distribution information, as well as usage of the results of activity of faktchecking projects. The characteristic markers of purposeful untruthful information messages have been defined: shocking character of news, powerful emotionality of report; absence of reference to the source; erroneous argumentation; manipulative title; versions or theory of conspiracy; fully invented news or absolute fake news. The examples of fake information and possibilities of its recognition have been proved. The authors state the most obvious threats of distribution of unverified news, role of teachers in the process of formation of the critical thinking for the bread-winners of education as effective weapon of fight against manipulations, the necessity of medialiteracy, conscious consumption and distribution of information for all participants of educational environment in the context of new calls of contemporaneity, that is predefined by establishment and development of informative society.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document