While efforts to censor children’s media were common during the mid-20th century, they focused on targeting violent or sexual content and were often bipartisan. Recent research from Michael Macy (Professor of Sociology at Cornell University), Adam Szetela (Writer; Ph.D. in English), and Shiyu Ji (Ph.D. Candidate at Cornell University) finds that censorship efforts are now more focused on political ideology (the political left targeting media that reinforces racism, sexism, and homophobia; the political right targeting media that promotes diversity or challenges traditional gender / sexuality norms). “When each side attacks cancel culture on the other side, the attacks do not cancel out – they additively contribute to the restriction of freedom of expression,” Macy commented. “When people see ‘freedom of expression’ as just another weapon to use in the culture wars, it contributes to the problem of censorship by demeaning free expression as a core societal value.” This story was covered by the Cornell Chronicle. 

Emine Fidan Elcioglu (Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Toronto) wrote an article for The Conversation discussing YouTube’s role in the political education of young people in Canada. Elcioglu found that “young people now form political beliefs through two competing knowledge systems: a hollowed-out university, and YouTube’s attention economy.” While universities tend to highlight structural explanations for inequality, conservative influencers on YouTube tend to offer simple narratives and emotionally charged content that feels true.

A Georgetown University lecture series on Gaza featured Martin Shaw (historical sociologist and Professor Emeritus of International Relations and Politics at the University of Sussex) to discuss the process of defining genocides in legal courts. Shaw noted that “the relationship of war to genocide is a central paradox: Genocide must be distinguished from war, but it typically occurs within the context of war.” He also discussed how the United States and Israel are very influential in international courts, making it difficult to resolve issues without the support of Western nations. “The problem here is not non-intervention, but deep intervention on Israel’s side,” Shaw said. “International courts have been unprecedentedly active in this case, but they have also been unprecedentedly attacked by the United States and Israel and barely defended by Europe.” This story was covered by The Hoya.