Abstract
For decades, attempts have been made to define a ‘right to communicate’. The rise of media technologies, which are characterized by abundance of channels and information, interactivity, mobility, and multimediated messaging, has allowed to rethink this right in a context converging traditional media and telecommunications and referring to communicating as an essential human capability. Applying Amartya Sen’s capabilities approach to communications, we argue that communicating is a capability required to realize such functionings as participating in political, cultural, social, educational, and commercial life and is essential to promote belonging to a collective. The ‘negative’ right to free speech should be replaced by a positive right to communicate, which should include free speech, access to information, privacy, and utilization of communications in order to belong to a community.
Original language | American English |
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Pages (from-to) | 1826-1840 |
Number of pages | 15 |
Journal | Convergence |
Volume | 28 |
Issue number | 6 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 1 Dec 2022 |
Keywords
- Capabilities
- free speech
- functionings
- new media
- right to communicate
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Communication
- Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)