Communicative Responsibility in an Age of Fragmented Connectivity

Abstract

In the face of technological advances, questions of communicative ethics seem to become more important than ever. This paper first introduces the notion of fragmented connectivity to explain major structural aspects of how public discourse can be seen to unfold today. Then we summarize two distinct studies, focusing on (i) the political weaponization of free speech, and (ii) academic complicity in politically driven historiography. Both point at the need to re-emphasize attention to communicative responsibility.

Keywords

• responsibility
• connectivity
• fragmentation
• polarization
• free speech
• history writing