Eight Values of Free Expression--Which One(s) is Most Important?

Eight scholarly theories regarding free expression outline why the First Amendment is so vital to us as Americans. These are ordered as follows: Marketplace of Ideas, Participation in Self-Government, Stable Change, Individual Self-Fulfillment, Check on Governmental Power, Promotion of Tolerance, Promotion of Innovation, and Protection of Dissent. Of these many ideas, there is much discussion of which can be considered the most important. While all of these
theories are critical to the American ideal of liberty, there are two that particularly stand out to me -- Marketplace of Ideas and Protection of Dissent. These two theories are inseparably twined together and each promotes the continuity of the other.

The Marketplace of Ideas is a theory that was originally formed by John Milton, an English poet, historian, and journalist. The hypothesis claims that when true and false ideas are allowed to compete openly with each other, the truth will always be the victor. I strongly agree with this idea, as its validity seems to be common sense. On the flip side, the Protection of Dissent theory enables unpopular ideas in the marketplace to be protected. Whenever there is no marketplace of ideas or protection of dissent, one specific viewpoint can be shut down, or be the only view that is available/promoted. If this occurs, only bad things can ensue. For example, in Nazi Germany, when Hitler exclusively promoted the idea that Jews were an inferior, subhuman species, that idea was commonplace throughout Germany. This is because all German citizens were conditioned to agree, due to the suppression of any other ideas that disagreed with this notion. However, a marketplace of ideas defeats this possibility

. When people with bad ideas are allowed to freely share their bad ideas and others are allowed to freely critique these ideas, people will rightly recognize the bad ideas and be able to call them out. Germany's problem was that its dissenting voice against antisemitism was not allowed to critique the common idea, which led to it spreading like wildfire. This shows why the Protection of Dissent is so important. If dissent were protected in Germany during this time, I believe the marketplace of ideas would have shut down Hitler’s antisemite propaganda swiftly. This is why I strongly believe one of these concepts of the Marketplace of Ideas and the Protection of Dissent cannot exist without the other. They are both so vital to the other’s existence that one cannot be complete without the other. 

In a day and age where government censorship of the public is becoming more and more normalized, we must remember our nation’s founding principles. Included in the First Amendment is everything us Americans need to defend our right to free speech, yet we constantly allow the government to illegally trample our voices. Why is this? I believe it is because many Americans are poorly educated on what the First Amendment ensures us. Many Americans do not even know that embedded in the amendment are the 8 theories of free expression. While I chose to write about just two of them, all of them are critical components of what makes the First Amendment so strongly supportive of the people. In America, the government is supposed to derive its power only from the consent of the governed, yet so many of the governed are not even aware of this. Better education on the First Amendment and the rights it guarantees is the first step in correcting this grave reality.

The Supreme Court of the United States

Before watching these videos, I had a decent amount of knowledge about the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS), but I did learn more. The Supreme Court is one of the most important institutions in the country and one of the most powerful institutions in the world. Its main role in the government is to interpret the United States Constitution to determine whether certain laws are constitutional. This role, known as Judicial Review, was given to the Supreme Court by the Marbury v. Madison case of 1803. This is the most important takeaway about the Supreme Court to me, as it is what gives the Court the power that it retains today. Additionally, it was surprising to me that the Supreme Court is asked to hear so many cases every year – the video said around 7,000. Thankfully, because 7,000 would take many years to hear, Certiorari grants the Supreme Court the power to reject/accept whichever cases it desires.

Through this set of videos, I learned that opinion writing is what takes up most of the Supreme Court's time. I had never really thought of this, but in hindsight, it makes sense, as the judges all have to carefully think out what they want to write down in their opinion, and how they want to write it.

It was very interesting to me to see how the every justice on the court got along so well in the videos. This seems very contrary to how polarized the mainstream media paints every governmental institution as being. Overall, these videos helped me to learn more about the Supreme Court and its methods and functions. They helped me recognize the fact that if I, someone who considered myself fairly knowledgeable about the court, learned from the videos, so many people who aren't knowledgeable have much to gain from watching.

Top Five News Sources

 1.  Ground News

    Ground News is a news company that focuses on covering media bias across topics being reported on and/or ignored in the media. It has created its own app which includes both a free and premium subscription--I have the free version, which, for my purposes, gives me all I need. Ground News labels every news story as either left, right, or center-biased and generally groups the same outlets into the same spot on the bias spectrum. On top of this, Ground News shows the percentage of sources that cover any given story and offers a headline from each position on the spectrum for readers. To keep things as neutral as possible, the aggregate always shows a center-biased headline as the default, initially visible headline for a given story--readers can swipe left or right on a story for headlines from more biased sources. Finally, Ground News shows a percentage for every story that shows the amount of left/right/center sources that cover said story. For example, the app could show a story where 70% of the sources that covered it were right-leaning, 20% were center, and 10% were left-leaning. In a case like this, where the right gives overwhelming coverage to a story and the left largely ignores it, Ground News could label the story a blindspot for the left, due to its minimal coverage from that side. All in all, I think Ground News is a fantastic place to get my news, due to its insightful, cautious nature and ability to give readers important information about what the media likes to pick and choose with its reporting.

https://ground.news/

2. Instagram

    Instagram is a social media app owned by Meta that contains all sorts of content, from memes to entertainment to genuine news. The only real reason I use Instagram for news is because of its convenience. I like to scroll through the app for memes and entertainment and if I'm already there, I figure I may as well invest in something more worthwhile, like the news. Instagram is great because users can choose which accounts that provide news they want to follow. However, this is also a detriment, because if strongly partisan users only choose to absorb the news that they want to see, they will miss all of the important stories they don't want to see. After all, those issues may not be covered by their favorite biased accounts. Another problem with Instagram is the fact that it can censor whatever news it doesn't like and promote anything it does like. For example, during the height of the Covid pandemic, Instagram often shadowbanned accounts that posted anything critical or questioning of the Covid vaccine. To take that even further, Instagram labeled all posts with any reference to Covid with a tag that gave viewers a link to get promotive information about the vaccine and a warning about misinformation against it. This label could often be seen on posts that did not even have a stance for or against the vaccine, like memes and entertainment posts. These facts solidify the idea that Instagram can promote or censor whatever it chooses by simply selecting what information users receive. Overall, Instagram is a great place to acquire news if you choose to interact with unbiased accounts, but a bad one if you do not. And even so, because of the power that the company holds, even unbiased news can be taken away from users, rendering the app useless or perhaps harmful.

https://www.instagram.com/

3. RocaNews

    RocaNews is a relatively new news source that was started by a few friends who quit their jobs in order to create an informative and non-partisan news source. I consume my share of RocaNews through the company's Instagram page and the RocaNews app. The unique aspect of this source is its way of providing simple, relevant news in an easy-to-understand manner. The company covers each trending news story by using singular slides which include bullet points going over exclusively the main point of any given story. RocaNews states in its app that the company's goal is to make the news enjoyable, rather than a chore. Its quick, easy slides are effective in achieving this endeavor.

https://www.rocanews.com/

4. ESPN

    ESPN is my least practical but most fun source of news. I've always loved sports, specifically NFL Football, so ESPN is a great place to get updates on that front. While it does cover the NFL, ESPN also covers many other sports at various levels, like NHL Hockey, College Basketball, etc., making it a good source to get information about sports you may not normally consider yourself a fan of. In recent years the TV broadcast of ESPN has in my opinion, gone downhill, so I generally stick to the website or app, unless I happen to see the broadcast at a restaurant, sports bar, etc. Overall, ESPN is a great way to stay up-to-date in the world of sports, the ongoings of your favorite team, game schedules, and more.

https://www.espn.com/

5. TikTok

    Unfortunately, number 5 for me is TikTok. I say unfortunately like I'm not the one choosing to open the app and absorb the content it throws at me, but I mean it. TikTok is one of the most popular social media platforms in the world and therefore holds a great influence on society. This can be both a good and bad thing. The good side of obtaining your news from TikTok is largely the same as the aspects of Instagram that I mentioned earlier, while the bad side is again, the same as Instagram, but even worse. TikTok has been shown to have direct ties to the Chinese Government, which gathers users' personal data. This has led to it being commonly labeled by U.S. lawmakers as a security threat to all American users. This sums up the reason TikTok is a problem, but there still remains the question of why so many Americans continue to use the app if they already know this information? I wish I could answer the question as I myself still use the app, sometimes to attain news, but soon enough maybe I won't even have to. Just as I write this on March 12th, 2024, the U.S. House plans to vote on banning TikTok tomorrow.

https://www.tiktok.com/en/