Abstract: Our Right to Know

“Our Right to Know: Changes across Time and Cultures from the Printing Press to the Internet”

This paper examines how Gutenberg’s printing press revolutionized the way in which knowledge, information, and opinion is distributed and shared. The Reformation is discussed in context to how the new technology of the printed word helped spread the Protestant movement. At the same time, the Reformation movement acted as a change agent to increase literacy across Europe. The motives of political and religious power structures of the 15th and 16th century are analyzed and compared to those of the present day in nations considered oppressive and totalitarian including; North Korea, China, and Iran.

Using the examples of more recent history including the Pentagon Papers and Wikileaks, “Afghan War Diary” and “Collateral Damage,” the Freedom of Information Act is discussed to demonstrate changing attitudes in censorship and suppression of information by the United States government. Within these contexts a comparison is drawn on the differences as well as the similarities of the impacts upon society at the introduction of technologies that enable the sharing of information and knowledge. Both cultural differences and historic differences in how information is shared and controlled are examined based upon these two revolutionary inventions – the book and the Internet.