Academic Free Speech and Digital Voices

Summary

Although academic free speech is an ideal in Higher Education, it is seldom realised in practice. External funders and powerful academic orthodoxies are often successful in stifling novel research that challenges the commercial status quo. This has been particularly evident in the Health Sciences, where research into promising low-cost solutions, such as low carbohydrate, healthy fat (LCHF) diets, remains poorly funded. The few science experts brave enough to study LCHF must negotiate scientific suppression, whereby authorities misrepresent The Scienceā„¢ as settled, whilst actively stifling dissent. The first AFSDV theme raises awareness around this neglected concern.

In response to formal suppression, LCHF scholars are using popular social media platforms to successfully promote their research and motivate for policy change. The second AFSDV theme supports the study of scholars’ digital voices, both in promoting dissent, and also in negotiating suppression.Ā  Research into academic cyberbullying is backed by a third theme, which has supported the definition of negative phenomena, like what online academic bullying (OAB) is, and what makes up an academic cyber mob. Mixed-methods and qualitative researchers are supported via a fourth theme that assists them with extracting social media data for analysis in their postgraduate studies, thereby broadening the field.

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Ongoing Research Studies

Academic Free Speech (AFS)

Academic free speech (AFS)

Summary

In theory, universities should offer an environment for robust scholarly debates on scientific controversies. In contrast, dissident scholars experience scientific suppression driven by the overlapping interests of orthodox academics, embedded media and their business funders. Their collaboration creates the negative phenomenon of ā€˜undone science’, where research into promising interventions is prevented or suppressed.

This is evident in the lack of debate in universities around Insulin Resistance versus the orthodox ā€œcholesterolā€ model of chronic disease development. It is also obvious in how effective, but inexpensive, COVID-19 preventative treatments have been ignored in favor of costly, but largely ineffective, mRNA inoculations.

Primary Research Outputs

Noakes, T. David, B. Noakes, T. 2022, Who is watching the World Health Organisation? ā€˜Post-truth’ moments beyond infodemic research. Transdisciplinary Research Journal of Southern Africa special issue – Myth and fear in a post-truth age: Implications for communication and sociality in the 21st Century Southern Africa, December, 2022. doi:Ā https://doi.org/10.4102/td.v18i1.1263.

Challenging Scientific Dogma

Noakes, T., & Sboros, M. (2021). The Eat Right Revolution: Your guide to living a longer, healthier life. Penguin Random House South Africa.Ā https://www.penguinrandomhouse.co.za/book/eat-right-revolution-your-guide-living-longer-healthier-life/9781776096206

Noakes, T., & Sboros, M. (2017). Lore of Nutrition: Challenging conventional dietary beliefs. Penguin Random House South Africa.Ā https://www.penguinrandomhouse.co.za/book/lore-nutrition-challenging-conventional-dietary-beliefs/9781776092611

Noakes, T., & Vlismas, M. (2012). Challenging beliefs : memoirs of a career (New edition. ed.). Zebra Press.Ā https://www.penguinrandomhouse.co.za/book/challenging-beliefs/9781770224612

Noakes, T. (2012). Waterlogged: the serious problem of overhydration in endurance sports. Human Kinetics.Ā https://www.human-kinetics.co.uk/9781492577843/waterlogged/

Secondary Research Outputs

Noakes, TM. Harpur, P. (2021, May 20) Marketing a myth-busting editorial via microblogging: aspects of success and pitfalls in spotlighting scientific dissent. [Colloquium presentation]. Cape Peninsula University of Technology’s Centre for Communication Studies Colloquium, Cape Town, South Africa.

Noakes, TM. Noakes, TD. (2021, May 18) Academic freedom in science: personal experiences of academic freedom denied, the role of embedded science and scientists. [Colloquium presentation]. Cape Peninsula University of Technology’s Centre for Communication Studies Colloquium, Cape Town, South Africa.

Noakes, T. (2022) The Cause of Majority Modern Chronic Diseases can be Traced to the Effects of Diet

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XN02QQ4asTI

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Digital Voices (DV)

Digital voices (DV)

Summary

To work around their silencing in Higher Education and the mainstream media, dissidents can exercise responsible free speech on digital platforms to grow support for their scientific contribution.Ā  There is scant research regarding dissidents’ online practices, such as sharing state-of-the-art publications, or participating in related informal academic debates. TNF has sponsored the infrastructure that supports a better understanding of dissident’s digital voices on Twitter, and how such visibility assists them with disseminating unorthodox, but scientific, research.

Primary Research Outputs

Noakes, TM. Harpur, P. Uys, C. 2023, Noteworthy disparities with four CAQDAS tools: explorations in organising live Twitter data. Social Science Computer Review. doi: 10.1177/08944393231204163.

Noakes, T. 2021, The value (or otherwise) of social media to the medical professional : some personal reflections. Current Allergy and Clinical Immunology, volume 34, issue 1, pages 23-29, March, 2021. https://hdl.handle.net/10520/ejc-caci-v34-n1-a5.

Secondary Research Outputs

  1. Noakes, T.Ā  (2021, 4-6 March). From informal academic debate to cyber harassment – navigating the minefield as a responsible contributor [Conference presentation]. World Nutrition Summit, Cape Town, South Africa: https://www.slideshare.net/TravisNoakes/from-informal-academic-debate-to-cyber-harassment-navigating-the-minefield-as-a-responsible-contributor-243996265 |Ā https://courses.nutrition-network.org/p/wns-bundle
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