The First Amendment in Media

 Drew Pinsky is a media personality and practicing physician who recently got suspended from YouTube for a week for discussing medical treatments about COVID-19 with other doctors. It can be debated that this is a violation of the First Amendment and his Freedom of Speech but since YouTube is a private company the First Amendment does not apply here. If Dr. Drew was talking on his own platform the government could not stop or censor him because then it would be a violation of the First Amendment. He instead has an issue with YouTube and that they didn't follow their own terms and conditions because he believes he did not violate any of their rules. People often get confused when private companies censor people but that it is a first amendment issue there can still be a grievance against the company. Congress and some states are looking at laws to reign in internet companies that unfairly target users with arbitrary rule. It is still a valid concern that these companies have so much power and influence with little to no oversight. 

One of the most important concepts of social media is to engage in the “marketplace of ideas.”  This is the idea that the truth will win out when people are allowed to freely engage in conversation. When social media companies do not allow opinions that are different from their own this is not possible. Another one of the Eight Values of Free Expression is to “promote innovation.”  Scientific concepts are almost never initially correct or agreed upon. This is even more true in a novel pandemic. The CDC and WHO have changed their guidance multiple times since the pandemic started. This continues even today as more information is found and discussed.  If people are not allowed to discuss on the major platforms information will not get out. Even if some information is wrong the truth will eventually come out over time. https://noqreport.com/2021/02/15/dr-drew-on-youtube-censoring-covid-19-truth-do-you-trust-a-23yr-old-computer-coder-with-your-life/

Eight Values of Free Expression

 From the eight values of free expression speech theories I agree with the first one and think it makes a lot of sense once I thought about it for a while. This theory is written by John Milton in his book Areopagitica and it is called Marketplace of Ideas (aka Discovery of Truth). From my understanding this theory is saying that all ideas should be openly presented and talked about, no matter if they are good or bad or true or false, and that the true good ideas will outweigh the bad false ones. I always thought that everyone should speak their mind and share their ideas to a certain extent because that is a human right we all have under the First Amendment after all, but I have never thought about it quite like this before. At first glance at this theory it seems sort of far-fetched to say that everyone should not hold back but instead say whatever they want because people can say some offensive and vulgar things. What I got out of this is that we can’t control what people say and we also shouldn’t have to because in time the truth will come out and at some point society will get the best of them. I even feel like I have seen this happen just in general so many times. Some examples are when people get caught in their lies or when people speak offensively especially towards someone or groups of people and other people stand up for them and make sure they know what they said is wrong.

Another theory I found to be important is Stable Change (aka Safety Valve) written by Benedict Spinoza in Tractatus-Theologico. This speech theory is suggesting that a society would be more stable if that when the citizens are angry they speak their minds about what they are angry about. I think this is very true because no matter who you are whether you are necessarily angry or not, if you hold in your thoughts and feelings for too long then inevitably one way or another they will come out. Sometimes when this happens you will not be able to control how or when your emotions will affect your actions. I have personally experienced this multiple times, when I don’t talk about my feelings and they all bottle up I end up snapping and taking it out on whoever is around me without even meaning to. Now just imagine this happening to every alienated and angry person, there would be utter chaos. It is also important for the government to know what groups are angry or disgruntled. If everyone is afraid to speak out due to fear of government retribution or censorship, they will stay underground and possibly be more likely to react violently. For example if there are violent extremist groups and we do not allow them to talk in a public forum they may stay underground. This makes it harder to track their whereabouts and what their possible actions could be. Historically,  groups like the KKK were allowed to march although most people were against it. We were still able to see who they were and what they stood for.  Therefore I agree with Benedict Spinoza when he says “Ultimately, it is in the government's own self interest to allow such venting”. Eight values of free expression

Supreme Court

Before watching both Supreme Court videos I did not have a lot of knowledge about the Supreme Court except for some of the basic information about it. I ended up learning a lot about the Supreme Court like how the current president appoints a new Justice when there is an opening and how long an average Justice serves for. I knew the Supreme Court Justices had to be appointed but I didn’t realize it was directly by the president of the United States which I found to be interesting. One important take-away point I got from the video is when the narrator said “Their legitimacy is in the constitution but their power rests on public faith in their independence and impartiality”.Since I did not know too much before watching the video many things surprised me such as how many cases are presented to the court weekly. I imagined that they could get quite a few cases but since they are so big and powerful I thought there might be more of a process to getting a case reviewed by the Supreme Court. Although it is more work for the Justices I like that any case can get the opportunity to be reviewed and possibly even selected. Another thing that surprised me is that the opinion writing is one of the most time consuming parts of the Justices work and that the first draft of it is normally finished in 4 weeks or how ever long the process is before they announce their decisions. Supreme Court video  

 

 

Top Five Sources

  One of the sources I use to get information from friends and less important news is Snapchat. I like Snapchat to quickly look at peoples stories and connect with them personally through that if I want to get more information from them. I also like that they have a discover page that has a whole bunch of different stories about what is going on in social media and some news stories as well.

 
 To get even more information and news about people I also like to use Instagram as a source. On Instagram people post pictures with captions about whatever they want which is another easy way to get information or news about them or stuff going on in their lives. So many people have an Instagram account nowadays which makes it easier to keep in touch with people as well. Certain companies and news stations also have accounts so if you want to keep up with something specifically you can just follow them and see when they post anything important. I also like how Instagram has a feature where you can get notifications when certain people post if you want, so if there is something important that you are waiting for someone to post you won’t miss it. 

Twitter is another source I like to use more specifically to keep up with different kinds of news. On twitter you can post pictures but most people use it to just write about updates and different things. You can only use up to 280 characters on twitter but people for sure use it to their advantage. Through twitter you can keep up with all sorts of things and people and obtain a lot of information.
 

When I want to listen to more important and serious news I will sometimes go to Fox News. Fox is an actual news channel with reliable and trustworthy information. It is more on the conservative side but nonetheless it is still a great new channel to watch and learn from. They also have a website that allows you to quickly look at certain stories and information you are interested in.  https://www.foxnews.com/

NBC News is another news channel I like to use to get information from. They are another legitimate new station that provides accurate information. NBC has their own channel and website which are both very informative.