Media Discourse “Rebellions of Women”: Dispute about Values

Abstract

The article refers in its analysis to the perception of the value of Man as the highest good in the context of media changes and women’s protests in Poland at the end of 2020. At the beginning of the third decade of the 21st century, the important values emphasized in the public space are: the good of individuals, freedom of expression, political, social and economic equality concerning everyone, regardless of race, gender, culture, religion, political and sexual orientation. New media, including extremely important social media, have become a space for defending these values and attacking them. The aim of this article is a practical analysis of the intersection of values with a traditional humanistic meaning, such as the culture of speech and public debate, with the fight for the freedom to express one’s views and defend values with the use of new media. The field for analysis is the political and ideological dispute sparked on the Polish political scene. The analysis based on political science research and media science was based on researching the sources of both scientific literature, the Internet and social media. Case studies are related to the women’s protest in Poland. Due to the nature of social media, there is no censorship, no control of forms of expression and content. This form of freedom leads to vulgarization of public life. Often vulgarity, verbal, gestures, symbols, and their use have their origins in politics. According to the authors, this extremely important form of expressing thoughts, including the one serving to defend basic values, requires self-control on the part of users and education in the use of means of expression. This education depends on public authorities and their own behavior

Keywords

• humanistic values
• new media
• public debate