Date of Award

December 2014

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Department

Information Studies

First Advisor

Johannes Britz

Committee Members

Mike Allen, Tomas Lipinski, Dietmar Walfram, Taghreed Alqudsi-Ghabra

Keywords

Freedom of Expression, Freedom of Information, Information Control, Kuwait, Regulations, South Africa

Abstract

ABSTRACT

THE IMPACT OF CULTURE AND RELIGION ON THE PERCEPTION OF FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION BETWEEN OLDER AND YOUNGER GENERATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA AND STATE OF KUWAIT: AN INTERNATIONAL AND COMPARATIVE STUDY

by

Dalal Albudaiwi

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2014

Under the Supervision of Professor Johannes Britz

Freedom of expression as a right has been protected by many nations' Constitutions and human right organizations. Freedom of expression has a long history in both the Western and Islamic worlds. Each viewed, defined, and analyzed the term differently based on their values and principles. Unsurprisingly, the Western and Islamic worlds do not completely agree on the meaning of freedom of expression. Though, they do share an agreement on certain aspects of freedom of expression. In particular, freedom of expression is to speak, write, act, and believe freely without causing harm to the society or any individual. The disagreement is on the limitations of freedom of expression. Further, it is central to mention that the existence of the Internet has impacted how people perceive freedom of expression in both worlds.

On the other hand, as a basic human right, freedom of expression has been examined, analyzed, and compared substantially by legal experts. More importantly, several studies within the legal arena have compared the notion of freedom of expression among countries' legislations. Therefore, freedom of expression has been studied solidly through the legal lens. However, social science scholars started to study freedom of expression when the Internet appeared. There are not any comparative studies in any social science field that examine freedom of expression among countries. More significantly, no studies relating between individuals' cultural background and/or religious beliefs and how these individuals shape their perception of freedom of expression exist. For that reason, I plan to examine how culture and religion may impact how older and younger generations perceive the notion of freedom of expression in the digital-technology era. My study will compare South Africa as a Western-based values country and Kuwait as Islamic country. To better understand the influence of culture and religion on people's perception of freedom of expression, I intend to describe the culture and the religion of both countries. Additionally, my research will compare legislations concerning freedom of expression and its limitations in each country and examine the views and perceptions of people.

In order to examine the complexity of the topic of freedom of expression, I will conduct an international and comparative study through the mixed-methods research approach. Drawing from social science and information studies perspectives, I hope this study will lead to understanding of culture and religion's influence on people's conceptualization of the notion of freedom of expression in digital-technology era and hopefully reach valuable results that help legal experts better understand freedom of expression and its limitations.

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