Eight Values of Free Expression

 Learning about the Eight Values of Free Expression was both fascinating and educating. Upon my initial reading of these eight values, my attention was immediately grasped with the Marketplace of Ideas. I have never thought of truth in the sense of its relationship with falsehood, and how falsehood can actually reveal truth. The second value, Participation in Self-Government is another important factor in free expression. Ensuring that all citizens are fully informed of the policies and positions of people in leadership protects them from being manipulated and misinformed. Stable Change presented a new perspective on protesting that I had not previously thought of. This value states that allowing minorities and discriminated people groups to freely vent and protest actually prevents riot and outrage. Individual self-fulfillment, the right to free speech and expression, is the value that I most commonly think of when I consider free-expression. The next value, Check on Governmental Power, describes the checks and balances process, and how it intrinsically protects the people from an abuse of governmental power. Promoting tolerance is an intriguing idea that basically states that free speech, especially hateful or offensive speech, allows people to grow more tolerant of diverse opinions, backgrounds, and lifestyles. This however goes hand in hand with Promoting Dissent, a value that protects minority voices. Lastly, Promoting Innovation ultimately says that a community in which free speech is encouraged is one that will allow for creativity and imagination, and therefore flourish in innovation. 

Of these eight values, the ones that stood out to me the most were the Marketplace of Ideas and the Promotion of Tolerance. In my opinion, these two values are the most complex in theory and impacted my understanding of free expression most. I see the Marketplace of Ideas in action today through the presidential election. Watching heated debates between two people of such starkly contrasting opinions and worldviews tends to reveal the truth and even strengthen the truth. The Promotion of Tolerance intrigued me because of its correlation with censorship in todays world. The tension of promoting free speech and censoring hate speech is so difficult in todays world. I even experienced and witnessed forms of hate speech in my inner-city diverse high school, and it was incredibly upsetting. It would lead you to believe that hate speech is something that is entirely evil, and serves no positive purpose whatsoever. However, through these years at my high school, and the things I witnessed, I have become more understanding of how people different from me think, and likewise, we have been able to grow in respect, through growth and forgiveness. 

There are obviously positive and negative outcomes that result from social media, however I notice the
Promotion of Innovation as one of the positive outcomes of Instagram. So many people use Instagram to share all forms of creativity and expression: art, fashion, humor, poetry, music, and more. Through platforms like Instagram which make expression like this possible, people are able to share these talents with the world and therefore promote innovation, energy, and diversity. 

The Founding Era and the Supreme Court

 The posted videos about the Supreme Court educated me in various ways. There were a few major points that stuck out to me, including the publicity of the Supreme Court and its cases. I had always thought of the Supreme Court and its nine Justices to be incredibly high profile and private. Furthermore, I had always thought of the cases that made it all the way to the Supreme Court to be of top secrecy and confidentiality. This video demonstrated just how public these cases are, and that, in many ways, the publicity of the cases brought to the Supreme Court ensures accountability and transparency. 

I believe that the most important takeaway about the Supreme Court is how intentionally and purposefully it works to protect the rights of the American people and the laws of the Constitution. This video revealed and examined all of the inner workings of the Supreme Court, including the length of time it takes for cases to get to the Supreme Court, the timeline and workings of the cases themselves, and the opinion writing process after the court trial. It was especially shocking to me that sometimes the Justices will write over 80 pages about their opinion on a case. It was encouraging to see how many steps are taken and people's lives are dedicated to ensure that the American people are protected from governmental abuse.

The part that most impacted the way I think of the Supreme Court was about a third of the way into the second video. The narrator says, "when the Supreme Court speaks, the people listen. And by and large, people obey. And that unspoken contract is one of the hidden keys to our freedom." I have never thought to describe the Supreme Court like this, and furthermore, I never realized that I live my own life based on this principle. 

My Top Five Sources

My top five sources for news and information are Fox News, CNN, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. I look to these five sources specifically because each of them is able to offer me something unique. 

Fox News is one source I use to find information because of the particular standpoints I know I will find through their broadcasting. Being a drastically right-leaning news channel, much of what they post and broadcast comes from a conservative standpoint. Most other highly viewed news sources are
extremely left-leaning, so I believe that it is essential to intentionally seek out conservative viewpoint.

YouTube is another major source I use simply because of the structure of the platform. I am a visual learner, and I digest information best through videos as opposed to articles. Verified news channels such as Fox and CNN all have accounts on YouTube, and it is a great source to get all of these channels in one place.

CNN is another major news channel where I find my information. In contrast to Fox News, this source is progressive in its broadcasting and left-leaning in its perspective. I believe that it is equally as important to seek out this viewpoint, and balance the two by researching news and information from varying political stances. Solely digesting information from only one standpoint leads to falling subject to false information and propaganda. 

TikTok is a source I use for initially finding news and information. This is almost entirely because of how easy and effortless it is to find information. I scroll on TikTok every day, and news stories show up on my For You Page without having to search for them. I am aware that there is nearly zero fact checking of information posted to TikTok, and for this reason I use this source only for initially discovering news stories. From TikTok, if something intrigues me I take it to Fox, CNN, or YouTube for the complete story. 

Instagram and an increasingly relevant and useful source to find information. What started as a mere social media app has grown into a platform more like Twitter, where users can share current events and opinions about those events. I look to instagram for information mainly because of the simplicity and uncomplicated nature of the app, and because of the growing reliability of its news. Instagram has added a new feature which censors false information to certain posts. This helps Instagram gain reliability in its news related posts, however we also must consider what standpoint the person who censors this information comes from, and if we can truly and entirely trust it.