Report: Catholic Social Thought, Human Dignity, Common Good, Fake News

This report delves into Catholic Social Thought, emphasizing human dignity and the common good within modern society. It defines key concepts and examines the impact of deliberately spreading fake news. The report discusses the principle of human dignity as the foundation for societal development and justice, highlighting the importance of protecting individual worth. It also addresses the principle of the common good, which involves providing essential facilities for societal well-being. The core of the report analyzes how fake news undermines human dignity and the common good, particularly within the context of social media. It references scholarly sources to explore the issue, including the role of age in spreading misinformation and the implications of social media platforms. The report concludes by reiterating the negative effects of fake news on human dignity and the common good, emphasizing the need for ethical considerations in the digital age.

SELF AND COMMUNITY:
EXPLORING THE ANATOMY OF
MODERN SOCIETY

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................5
INTRODUCTION
Catholic Social Thought refers to a tradition that reflects the reality of the present situations in
the society, the principles related with the ethics, the application of ethical values and norms to
the current situations of the society(Meza, 2018). The main basis of the Catholic Social Thought
is the dignity of human beings that are living in the society. The Report will describe the
principle of dignity of human beings, the principle of common good, detail account of
deliberately spreading fake news which is a current issue of the society. The Report will also

describe the relation of the issue of deliberately spreading of fake news with human dignity and
common good of the humans.
MAIN BODY
Human dignity means the sense of self-worth, empowerment of human beings. The principle of
human dignity is one of the important principle of Catholic Social Teaching. According to the
principle,the dignity of the person is the basis of the development of vision of the society. The
justice in society will become a reality only when the dignity of human beings will be
maintained. The laws, social order etc. should be developed for protecting the dignity of human
beings in the society(Elliott, 2019). The social order of the Government should work for the
benefit of the peoples. As per the principle, the value of people is more as compared with the
value of things. And every human being is important, The principle is the base of all the other
principles of catholic teaching.
The principle of common good is very important and it refers to providing all the facilities such
as institutional, material etc. to the human beings of the society so that the obligation in respect
of satisfying the common interest of the peoples that are living in the society. Examples- freedom
of speech, courts, judicial laws and system etc. All these will work for the common good of the
peoples living in the community.
Purposely spreading of fake news is the major concern in modern society which is giving rise to
criminal activities like assault, homicide, cybercrime, etc. According to Notley and Dezuanni,
2017, it is identified that age plays a major role in deliberately spread of wrong information. In
accordance with this it is stated that when children get older the individual become more
confident about spreading of fake news in comparison to real news. Australian teens from age 13
to 26 are majority of times reported for spreading fake information just for the sake of fun or
teasing. Modern society is driven by social media which is giving rise to misuse and misleading
of information which is against life and dignity of Human person. In contrast, Papuc and Sharon,

2019, outlined the issue of sharp criticism where Facebook came under criticism for not taking
down a video in which the alleged gunman killed 50 people in two mosques in Christchurch
which got circulated across social media platforms like YouTube. The social-media
organisations are considering an idea of placing restrictions on posting live videos in the wake of
the shooting that was filmed and disseminated in real time. As per the discussion over
intentionally spreading of news it can be said that anatomy of modern society is social media
driven where community is struggling from vulnerabilities of human condition. The beliefs of
society are completely against the principles of catholic culture which aim at protecting dignity,
rights and responsibilities of human beings.
The issue of deliberately spreading of fake news by the peoples may affects the human dignity of
other peoples with whom the news is related. Spreading of fake news is against the human
dignity because, the person who is spreading the fake news does not respect the true information.
The wrong actions of spreading fake news on social media will hurt other persons who will
become the victim of the fake news(Benítez-Burraco, 2018).
The issue of spreading fake news also affects the common good of the society. Government
should provide various rights to the victim of wrong information. Fake news can affect the
common interest of community.
CONCLUSION
The Report has outlined the meaning of Catholic Social Thought, relation of human dignity and
common good with the issue of deliberately spreading fake news. The Report also described
about the dignity of human beings and common good of peoples.
REFERENCES
Books and Journals-

Benítez-Burraco, A. and Kempe, V., 2018. The Emergence of Modern Languages: Has Human
Self-Domestication Optimized Language Transmission?. Frontiers in psychology, 9, p.551.
Elliott, A., 2019. Social theory and psychoanalysis in transition: Self and society from Freud to
Kristeva. Routledge.
Meza, J.P., 2018. Diagnosis Narratives and the Healing Ritual in Western Medicine: Alienation,
Healing and the Self in Society. Routledge.
Online-
Papuc, A., and Sharon, C., 2019. Australia, Singapore Crack Down on Online Media with New
Laws. [Online]. Available through: <
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-03-30/australia-to-crack-down-on-live-
streaming-of-violent-crimes>.
Notley, T. and Dezuanni, M., 2017. Most young Australians can’t identify fake news online.
[Online]. Available through: < https://theconversation.com/most-young-australians-cant-identify-
fake-news-online-87100>.