The actions that are considered speech under the law have expanded in the last century. What was once a narrow right, encompassing primarily formal oratory and written works, has become a broad one, including acts such as saluting (or burning) a flag, sitting or marching in protest, and wearing black armbands. The history of this momentous transformation has typically been told through the lens of legal precedent and politics, with a focus on the changing definitions of rights and political freedom in culture and law – a history of the “free” in free speech. I argue that this understanding is incomplete.
The changing nature of free speech owes as much to shifts in how the law defines “speech” as it does to changing definitions of freedom and rights. Such shifts in how the law defines speech, I argue, are centrally about transformations in practices and ideas about communication brought on by new media technologies. My current book, How Machines Came to Speak: Media Technologies and the First Amendment, excavates the history of “speech” in free speech law, revealing the momentous shifts in political rights associated with the expansion of speech rights are, in part technological artifacts. Changing modes of communication, enabled by media technologies, have been major, albeit overlooked, forces pushing changes in the definition of speech, and thus in speech rights.
How Machines Came to Speak, then, offers a history of free speech told through the lens of media technologies and ideas about communication. This retelling is necessary not only for understanding our past, but also for helping us think about a political and legal future increasingly shaped by newer and more complex media technologies. Given the centrality of the First Amendment to American ideals of democratic governance, the history of what is considered speech is also an archive of ideas about legitimate and illegitimate communication, and the shifting boundaries of rationality; the book shows that media technologies and the discussions of communication they engender have been central to this history.
Articles related to the book have appeared in Cinema Journal, New Media & Society, Popular Communication, and Critical Studies in Media Communication.
The changing nature of free speech owes as much to shifts in how the law defines “speech” as it does to changing definitions of freedom and rights. Such shifts in how the law defines speech, I argue, are centrally about transformations in practices and ideas about communication brought on by new media technologies. My current book, How Machines Came to Speak: Media Technologies and the First Amendment, excavates the history of “speech” in free speech law, revealing the momentous shifts in political rights associated with the expansion of speech rights are, in part technological artifacts. Changing modes of communication, enabled by media technologies, have been major, albeit overlooked, forces pushing changes in the definition of speech, and thus in speech rights.
How Machines Came to Speak, then, offers a history of free speech told through the lens of media technologies and ideas about communication. This retelling is necessary not only for understanding our past, but also for helping us think about a political and legal future increasingly shaped by newer and more complex media technologies. Given the centrality of the First Amendment to American ideals of democratic governance, the history of what is considered speech is also an archive of ideas about legitimate and illegitimate communication, and the shifting boundaries of rationality; the book shows that media technologies and the discussions of communication they engender have been central to this history.
Articles related to the book have appeared in Cinema Journal, New Media & Society, Popular Communication, and Critical Studies in Media Communication.