Session

Political Science

Description

The concept of Political Correctness (PC) arose in the United States in the 1970s. For the past 30 years, it has been subject to criticism as constituting a threat to the “liberty of speech”, as well as a contribution to media bias. The dilemma of PC lies in the fact that, although it aims to protect human and civic rights, it may also result in the exact opposite, namely the diminishing of such rights as the free utterance of thoughts. However, civilised societies are in need of strategies to deal with phenomena such as racism, sexism, hate speech, online firestorms and social media shaming, thus making it impossible to completely abandon any form of PC. This paper examines several ways in which the dilemma of PC endangering free speech can be overcome and new models of the concept found that are suitable for responding to modern challenges in communication and language usage.

Keywords:

Political Correctness, Liberty of Speech, Hate Speech, Fake News

Session Chair

Armend Muja

Session Co-Chair

Bekim Baliqi & Dritëro Arifi

Proceedings Editor

Edmond Hajrizi

ISBN

978-9951-437-69-1

First Page

25

Last Page

30

Location

Pristina, Kosovo

Start Date

27-10-2018 3:15 PM

End Date

27-10-2018 4:45 PM

DOI

10.33107/ubt-ic.2018.385

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Oct 27th, 3:15 PM Oct 27th, 4:45 PM

“Political Correctness” – A Threat to Free Speech? Overcoming the Dilemma

Pristina, Kosovo

The concept of Political Correctness (PC) arose in the United States in the 1970s. For the past 30 years, it has been subject to criticism as constituting a threat to the “liberty of speech”, as well as a contribution to media bias. The dilemma of PC lies in the fact that, although it aims to protect human and civic rights, it may also result in the exact opposite, namely the diminishing of such rights as the free utterance of thoughts. However, civilised societies are in need of strategies to deal with phenomena such as racism, sexism, hate speech, online firestorms and social media shaming, thus making it impossible to completely abandon any form of PC. This paper examines several ways in which the dilemma of PC endangering free speech can be overcome and new models of the concept found that are suitable for responding to modern challenges in communication and language usage.