How has cancel culture affected free speech?
Upon the Leap 2 Project, and after reading and annotating Chapter 10, I knew I wanted to focus on free speech and censorship, because those are phenomenons I encounter everyday on social media. Many celebrities I follow, and even family members engage in self-censorship to protect themselves from ridicule — these family members, who I have asked, have admitted they are scared of cancel culture, stating that it is best to “keep to yourself.” Since 2020, I’ve noticed social expectations and ridicule skyrocket on and off social media due to social and political issues ranging from racism, sexism, or just plain social drama like cattiness and rumors. I have noticed people being ostracized or mildly “canceled” for having an unpopular opinion or being a “bad friend,” especially influencers like Selena Gomez and Hailey Bieber, with their products being mildly boycotted due to boy drama! On extreme ends, we have seen celebrities’ acting/music careers plummeting because of cancel culture, due to an opinion that they voiced. Also, prospective high school students were denied from certain universities because of what they have said/posted online, which was compelling to me. I personally used to align with cancel culture and got wrapped into it, agreeing that whoever said anything mean, unaccepting, and hateful should not have a platform or fame any longer. However, with age and experience, I have realized the extremities of social media and have grown a resentment to online communities who jump to “canceling” and quickly condemn those who say things that are not socially acceptable. I also was interested, after reading Chapter 10, on defining free speech, which grew into defining hate speech.
Has cancel culture infringed on free speech? Does our country still operate with freedom of expression at our core? Do we stand by that in major and minor social, political, religious settings? Or is the collective public fear of saying something unpopular, or, imposing harm on vulnerable communities, let this value fade into the background? Has the era of reputation, which incites silence from individuals, disrupted our democracy, as small instances add up? I do not know every answer, but these questions have driven me to research this issue and create the podcast Diane and I collaborated on.
Diane and I made sure to use reputable sources, as well as some opinion pieces to collect perspectives. We used government sites, The New York Times, real Twitter examples, American Library Association information, and Pew Research Center, one of the most reputable research hubs. We feel confident in our quality of research.
Diane was my partner, and we found each other via email. She was very flexible and trustworthy to work with, and was open to many topics and worked hard to find adequate information. Diane herself is very familiar with cancel culture, especially because her family keeps her extra updated, which I thought was an important factor when putting information together. Something I was thankful for is the amazing examples she included which was J.K. Rowling and Dylan Mulvaney, because it brought important perspectives to our conversation. I knew I could count on her to bring value to the table. When we were creating the slides for our screencast/podcast, we had so much to say that we both ended up struggling to cut down words, which I personally, think is more of a green flag than red. We both worked together to research and make a fluid screencast.
The slides we used were the easiest way for the audience to follow along, which Diane and I have seen from past projects. We also found that cancel culture, free speech, and hate speech is best shown through examples in my opinion, which is why it was important for us to include many examples of celebrities. We used specific instances to show that these people faced extreme consequences for sharing opinions, for lack of a better term, especially the infamous Kanye West (less of an opinion, more violent action-based hate speech). Something else I wanted to include was an exercise to show how the prospective public viewed cancel culture and free speech, which was seen in the New York Times article I engaged in on the screencast. These charts engage with the reader and let them vote, and when they do, statistics are revealed. Because we were limited on time, we thought this was a great way to engage with the audience and allow them to see this research, instead of including a video or a drawing. Lastly, we included a graph to show what Canadians think about media regulation, which might later be similar to U.S. perspectives, as our media regulation is rising. The most important aspect of this for me, was to include solutions that we personally came up with for this issue — our last slide is truly what we think!
Overall, I enjoyed doing this project, because this issue seriously influences me. Cancel culture has shaped the way many people think and express themselves, as it is more than relevant. It is interesting to guess what trajectory our country is taking with social media — away from free speech or towards? What is the future of censorship and media regulation?
