Das Konzept der Unparteilichkeit entwickelte sich im 17ten Jahrhundert in unterschiedlichen gesellschaftlichen Sphären. Für manche bedeutet es, sich kein Urteil zu bilden, für andere wiederum zeigt es die Qualität eines Urteils. Was bedeutet Unparteilichkeit heutzutage, im Zeitalter von Internet und Social Media? Einstein Junior Fellow Anita Traninger möchte im Podium darüber diskutieren, ob Unparteilichkeit immer mehr von hitzigen Debatten und dem Ideal frei verfügbarer Informationen im Netz verdrängt wird.

To some, impartiality means abstaining from judgement; to others, it means a certain quality of a judgement. The concept emerged in the seventeenth century as a significant value in different spheres of society. It was sustained by the philosophy of Leibniz and Kant. Today Kant has more than 40.000 “likes” on Facebook. However, “liking” as well as “trolling” on the web 2.0 points towards an emerging culture of debate that is more given to an over-simplified judgement and heated comment than to an engagement with and the discussion of dissenting views. How has the idea of impartiality changed with the emergence of the Internet? Is impartiality as an editorial judgement more and more replaced by the idea of free availability of information? What does and should impartiality mean in the context of social media?


Panel Participants

- Dominique Cardon
Sociologist, researcher at Orange Lab France and expert on social media and the public sphere

- Antonio A. Casilli
Associate Professor in Digital Humanities at Télécom ParisTech with specialization on computer-mediated communication and politics

- Michael Fleischhacker
Journalist and author (“Politikerbeschimpfung. Das Ende der 2. Republik “ and “Die Zeitung. Ein Nachruf”)


The round table will be introduced and chaired by Anita Traninger, Einstein Junior Fellow and director of the research project „Towards a genealogy of the notion of impartiality“.