Michael Lipscomb, a professor political science, introduced the first part of 11 cultural events in an eight month long series, News Literacy and the Future of Journalism.
The first event, Constitution Day Observance: Free Speech and the Responsibilities of Citizenship, was held on Sept. 18 in Dina’s Place.
Lipscomb said that with freedom of speech comes a great duty the general public should fulfill as citizens of America.
“We should actively engage questions by living in contestanting the truths we endorse, actively defending our positions with reason. Our technological achievements, particularly in the fields of electronic informational media, have provided us unparalleled power to profound information, [however] it has had negative effects sometimes fragmenting the basis for a shared sense of what the truth is,” Lipscomb said.
He said that due to recent technological advances, there is a mass amount of information people are gaining. He said that there must be a sense of doubt and questioning due to unreliable sources being spread on the internet.
“A liberal education exposes students to a wide range of knowledge from various disciplines, in which provides the students the tools to be better thinkers. I want to argue that a liberal education is one of the best bets for providing us to cultivate that ability. The liberal education prepares you for freedom when you become the kind of citizens for whom free speech can have a relevant meaning,” Lipscomb said.
He said that the audience should be able to recognize that a liberal education entails a free mind to question truth within the news and information gained from certain sources.
Lipscomb said that students should understand that their liberal education can give free speech meaning because of the ability to have deductive reasoning and the skills gained from this.
He said that the practice of free speech is a responsibility of citizens who use these skills to share the truth with the general public. He said that this is especially important for journalists because of the information they put out into the world.
Miles Johnson, a junior English major, said that the insight he gained from Lipscomb’s lecture will help him become educated and share his knowledge with other students.
“I learned that being a good citizen is more than just voting and being active. It is also making sure that you and other citizens are well informed about what’s going,” Johnson said.
Lipscomb said that he hopes these events urge American citizens to use their knowledge for the better of the general public and to spread awareness and legitimacy of information.
”To summarize the twist of my comments on free speech and responsibility of citizenship, I find it essential to argue that free speech only has meaning to the degree that we have the tools to exercise that speech in our relationship to quest the truth, and that quest entails at public universities,” Lipscomb said.
The next part of this series, Discerning the Truth: Fake News vs. the Real Thing, will be held on Oct. 2 at 11 a.m. in Dina’s Place.
