The First Amendment: A Blessing and a Curse

Creative Commons photo by Denise Krebs

The First Amendment is the foundation of an open society. Two of the five protections guaranteed by the First Amendment -- freedom of speech and freedom of the press -- help ensure that we provide citizens with a "marketplace of ideas" free from censorship. 

Yet the right to free expression often comes into conflict with other rights, especially when it infringes on the safety or morality of others. Yelling "fire" in a crowded theatre, for example, is not protected by the First Amendment. Neither is child pornography or material that is considered obscene in nature.    

Click here to watch a brief news report about the case I mentioned to you in class. It was, in fact, the Supreme Court, that made this decision in 2011.       

It should be easy to see why the First Amendment is not just a static document that was written by our forefathers over 200 years ago. Because society and technology change and evolve, the First Amendment is continually challenged by cases that need to be interpreted by the courts. 

While the digital revolution has enabled us to have incredible opportunities and resources at our fingertips, it has also spawned problematic trends. How, for example, do we sift through it all? How will people know the difference between legitimate news sources and biased or unsupported propaganda? How will people be able to make informed decisions?

NBC anchorman Brian Williams summed it up well:  "It is now possible--even common--to go about your day in America and consume only what you wish to see and hear. There are television networks that already agree with your views, iPods that play only music you already know you like, Internet programs ready to filter out all but the news you want to hear . . . The whole notion of  'media' is now much more democratic, but what will the effect be on democracy?"

But unlike the U.S., many non-democratic countries in the world are closed societies where the government attempts to control its people by controlling the media. Watch this one-hour documentary entitled For Neda about true events in Iran. Then comment about what stands out to you the most about this closed society. (Warning: Please be advised that the film contains some violent, graphic images.)

Newspapers: Lost and Adrift? Or Changing and Adapting to the Tides of Technological Change?

  Creative Commons photo by Kevin Lim

Welcome to a new school year! And welcome, young journalists, to Waldsmith's Dispatch, our journalism class blog. I'm looking forward to get the blog up and running again because it works as a great tool to accompany and emphasize issues covered in class, as well a place to share your thoughts and comments. Some of the posts will be "greatest hits" of earlier posts I have created in the past, while others will be brand new.

We are beginning the semester by examining what makes news and exploring newspapers and news websites. The principles of what constitutes solid journalism do not change. However, newspapers are struggling and adapting to technological change, while news websites are also striving to find ways to become more profitable.

Consider this quote from Walter Pincus of The Washington Post, which was recently sold to the founder and CEO of Amazon.com:

"Think of a newspaper as a supermarket of material. I work in the meat department (national and foreign news along with sports and crime) as the public is becoming not just more vegetarian (health, science, style and human interest and animal stories) but also more practical (local news, home furnishing, education, entertainment). The Internet has joined radio and television in being first with news, but Web sites and cable are providing more of what I call 'junk food'— news-gossip and opinions rather than facts."

Do you agree? Where and how do you prefer to get your news? Why?

Read the first two pages of this article about the sale of The Washington Post, then read this story about how the Amazon model may be used on the newspaper.

Please share your thoughts -- just a few brief comments -- about anything you'd like to say in response to anything in this blog post or in the articles.