Whats going on? Here’s one hypothesis. For years, a certain kind of media commentator has been happy to pontificate on the virtues of free speech, safe in the knowledge that it’s them (I should really say “us”) who’d be doing most of that speaking, via columns and books and broadcasts. But technology has changed that forever. Now you can assume that any decision with public ramifications will trigger Twitter hashtags, a Facebook protest page and more besides, as people who formerly lacked a megaphone make themselves heard. Lovett’s right: in this transformed environment, we all need to remember to be kinder to each other. It’s also crucial that organisations learn not to succumb to the tiniest pressure, executing screeching U-turns the moment a few people complain on social media, because a few people always will. (...) Yet I cant help wondering if something else ought to happen, too: namely, that pundits who claim to be devoted to free speech should grow a thicker skin. The social media cacophony – open to everyone, vigorous, sometimes rude – is precisely the vision they’ve been championing for decades. So it’s a little depressing to see how rapidly they succumb to attacks of the nerves when it actually occurs, then results in decisions they don’t like. We do need to stop telling each other to shut up. But shouldnt that include resisting the instinctive urge to scold people you’d previously never have heard from to begin with?
Posted on: Tue, 25 Nov 2014 08:00:55 +0000
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