The role of the news media: imagine the United States without newspapers, TV news, and Internet access. What kind of country might we be living in?* OBJECTIVE Students should understand * what role the news media play in the U S., and the importance of a free press in a democratic society * BACKGROUND Much has been written about President Abraham Lincoln's abridgment of habeas corpus habeas corpus (hā`bēəs kôr`pəs) [Lat.,=you should have the body], writ directed by a judge to some person who is detaining another, commanding him to bring the body of the person in his custody at a specified time to a rights during the Civil War. But Lincoln was relatively liberal in his treatment of the hostile press. In one case, he quickly revoked a military suppression of the Chicago Times The Chicago Times was a newspaper in Chicago from 1854 to 1895 when it merged with the Chicago Herald. The Times was founded in 1854, by James W. Sheahan, with the backing of Stephen Douglas. In 1861, after the paper was purchased by Wilbur F. . "[I] n no other case will you interfere with the expression of opinion in any form," he wrote in the letter quoted in our article, urging his general to act "with great caution, calmness, and forbearance Refraining from doing something that one has a legal right to do. Giving of further time for repayment of an obligation or agreement; not to enforce claim at its due date. A delay in enforcing a legal right. ." * CRITICAL THINKING RECALLING DETAILS: Which Dart of the Constitution guarantees freedom of the press? (the First Amendment) MAKING INFERENCES: How would single-authority control of news media stifle democracy? (Answers will vary, but should show understanding that a free exchange of information allows citizens to participate in a democratic government.) * ACTIVITIES TALK IT THROUGH: Have students read the First Amendment (printed in its entirety at the top of p. 14) and discuss what it means, part by part. Which part--religion, speech, press, assembly, petition--is most important to them? Why? Why do they suppose the nation's Founders wanted these five basic rights at the top of the Bill of Rights? TAKE A SURVEY: Have students choose one of the graphs on p. 14 and make it the basis of a survey of peers and/or family members. See more questions at: firstamendment .jideas.org/students/students.php. Have you picked up a newspaper or magazine in the past few days? Listened to sports radio Sports radio (or sports talk radio) is a radio format devoted entirely to discussion and broadcasting of sporting events. A popular format with an almost exclusively male demographic in most areas, sports radio is characterized by an often-boisterous on-air style and ? Surfed the Web for celebrity gossip? If so, you were enjoying a First Amendment right guaranteed to all citizens of the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. . "The media are very important," Erik Perry, a seventh-grader in Katonah, New York Katonah, New York is one of three unincorporated hamlets within the town of Bedford, Westchester County. History Katonah is named for Chief Katonah, an American Indian from whom the land of Bedford was purchased by a group of English colonists. , tells JS. "How would you know what's going on Verb 1. know what's going on - be well-informed be on the ball, be with it, know the score, know what's what know - know how to do or perform something; "She knows how to knit"; "Does your husband know how to cook?" without TV, radio, magazines, the Internet, or newspapers?" The First Amendment states that "Congress shall make no law" that abridges (limits) freedom of the press. This means that the U.S. government has little direct control over what the media print or broadcast. A free press is a key element of any democracy. "You need to have an independent fact finder fact finder (finder of fact) n. in a trial of a lawsuit or criminal prosecution, the jury or judge (if there is no jury) who decides if facts have been proven. out there that's able to dig up the truth and present it to the rest of us," Mike Hiestand tells JS. Hiestand is an attorney for the Student Press Law Center, a group that provides legal advice to school newspapers. "We talk about our government being 'of the people,'" he says. "The press's job is to make sure that it in fact belongs to us." The press does this by reporting on the activities of state, local, and federal governments. Members of the press--magazine writers, newspaper reporters, and TV news anchors, for instance--have a right to hold the government accountable. In their role as "watchdogs" they: * question the actions of government officials. * confirm the truth of what officials tell the public. * gather facts that citizens need in order to make informed decisions. These rights "allow the free interchange of information," says Claire Lueneburg, an editor of her high school newspaper in Everett, Washington  This page is currently protected from editing to deal with vandalism. Protection is not an endorsement of the current [ version] (see "Rights for Students?"). "People throughout our country's history have fought and died for them." "A Tug of War tug of war n. pl. tugs of war 1. Games A contest of strength in which two teams tug on opposite ends of a rope, each trying to pull the other across a dividing line. 2. " Indeed, it took a fight to win freedom of the press. When the U.S. Constitution was written in 1787, it did not include a list of individual rights. This disturbed some of the Founding Fathers. Three even refused to sign the Constitution. After much debate, the first U.S. Congress proposed 10 Amendments to the Constitution. These Amendments, known as the Bill of Rights, protect personal freedoms. They went into effect in 1791. Although the First Amendment guarantees a free press, there have always been tensions between the press and the government. "Government officials, like the rest of us, don't like to look bad or have information they consider damaging widely publicized pub·li·cize tr.v. pub·li·cized, pub·li·ciz·ing, pub·li·ciz·es To give publicity to. Adj. 1. publicized - made known; especially made widely known publicised ," Stephen Frank tells JS. Frank is a vice president at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. "When the press finds that kind of information, it sets up a tug of war." When the U.S. government seeks to limit press freedom, it often cites national security. During the Civil War, Union generals shut down some newspapers they thought were aiding the enemy. President Abraham Lincoln allowed generals to do this for brief periods. Lincoln argued that parts of the Constitution must sometimes be sacrificed in emergencies. Even so, he set strict conditions on such actions. "You will only [prohibit] assemblies or newspapers when they may be [risking] injury to the military in your charge," he wrote to one general. "The worst time for freedom of the press has almost always been during times of war," Floyd Abrams, a top First Amendment lawyer, tells JS. "There's a lot more tendency to limit speech that is viewed as dangerous. The public understandably becomes nervous, but it's wrong to limit the press because of that. Sometimes the [only] protection we have is a free press." Abrams fought for that protection in a famous court battle during the Vietnam War Vietnam War, conflict in Southeast Asia, primarily fought in South Vietnam between government forces aided by the United States and guerrilla forces aided by North Vietnam. . In 1971, the U.S. government tried to bar The New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Times from publishing a secret Pentagon report about the causes of the war. Abrams represented the Times. In a victory for the press, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that both the Times and The Washington Post were allowed to publish the so-called Pentagon Papers Pentagon Papers, government study of U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia. Commissioned by Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara in June, 1967, the 47-volume, top secret study covered the period from World War II to May, 1968. . Watergate and Beyond Throughout U.S. history, the media have come in and out of the public's favor. The press gained great respect when two reporters from The Washington Post broke open the scandal known as Watergate. Investigating a 1972 burglary at Washington's Watergate Hotel, Bob Woodward Noun 1. Bob Woodward - United States chemist honored for synthesizing complex organic compounds (1917-1979) Robert Burns Woodward, Robert Woodward, Woodward and Carl Bernstein Carl Bernstein (pronounced BERN-steen, IPA: /ˈbɜrnstiːn/) (born February 14, 1944) is an American journalist who, as a reporter for The Washington Post sensed a larger story. Eventually they traced the crime and its cover-up all the way to the White House of President Richard M. Nixon. The impact was enormous: Nixon was forced to resign--the only U.S. President ever to do so. More than 30 other government officials were convicted of crimes, including perjury perjury (pûr`jərē), in criminal law, the act of willfully and knowingly stating a falsehood under oath or under affirmation in judicial or administrative proceedings. and illegal election-campaign activities. After Watergate, the press enjoyed a favorable reputation as an aggressive government watchdog. But this reputation has suffered in recent years. A growing number of Americans are questioning the news media's fairness, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. recent studies. They also perceive the press as having a political bias--either liberal or conservative. New technologies are putting additional pressures on the established mainstream media. The growth of cable TV, 24-hour news, and Internet blogs has pushed mainstream reporters to be even quicker in breaking stories. This can lead to the publishing or airing of stories without their facts being thoroughly checked. Yet some people think that the rising number of media voices is a good thing. "The idea of the First Amendment is that true ideas and accurate information will eventually push inaccurate information out of the marketplace," Stephen Frank tells JS. "People want the facts. When there are competing ideas, the truth comes out." RELATED ARTICLE: Rights for students? Do students have the same free-press rights as adults? In a 1969 landmark decision A landmark decision is the outcome of a legal case (often thus referred to as a landmark case) that establishes a precedent that either substantially changes the interpretation of the law or that simply establishes new case law on a particular issue. , the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that students do not "shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate." The Court said that students can engage in free speech--if it is lawful and nondisruptive. Still, students face some restrictions. In a 1988 case, the Supreme Court ruled that public-school officials can censor censor (sĕn`sər), title of two magistrates of ancient Rome (from c.443 B.C. to the time of Domitian). They took the census (by which they assessed taxation, voting, and military service) and supervised public behavior. student newspapers if they have a strong educational reason. Last December, two student editors in Everett, Washington, sued their school district when their principal required adult review of the newspaper before it was published. The principal said that the paper could not be printed unless the editors changed an editorial statement calling it a "student forum" (meeting to discuss ideas). That label allows student editors to make all the decisions. "We felt the district had violated our First Amendment rights," says Claire Lueneburg (pictured at left with her co-editor), 18, a co-editor in chief of the Everett High School Everett High School may refer to:
WORDS to Know * bias: a personal and sometimes unreasonable prejudice. * blog: short for Web log, a frequently updated journal or newsletter that is available on the Internet. * censor: to remove objectionable material. * landmark: having historic importance. * perjury: lying under oath Noun 1. lying under oath - criminal offense of making false statements under oath bearing false witness, perjury infraction, misdemeanor, misdemeanour, violation, infringement - a crime less serious than a felony .</p> <pre> Your Turn WORD MATCH 1. abridge TO ABRIDGE, practice. To make shorter in words, so as to retain the sense or substance. In law it signifies particularly the making of a declaration or count shorter, by taking or severing away some of the substance from it. Brook, tit. Abridgment; Com. Dig. Abridgment; 1 Vin. Ab. 109. A. lying under oath 2. bias B. limit 3. censor C. of historic importance 4. landmark D. prejudice 5. perjury E. remove objectionable material Answers: 1. B 2. D 3. E 4. C 5. A </pre> <p>THINK ABOUT IT 1. Why is a free press necessary in a democracy? 2. How do you think the press could better serve U.S. citizens?</p> <pre> Teens and the News Where do teens get their news? What do they do with it once they have it? These graphs answer both these questions--and more. Use them to answer the other questions below. Where Teens * Get Their News (every day several times a week) TV 67% Radio 52% Internet 42% Newspapers 33% * U.S. high school students Note: Table made from bar graph. </pre> <pre> How Often Teens * Discuss Issues in the News With Friends and/or Family Members Not at all 8% Don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. 2% Some of the time 44% Little of the time 28% All the time 18% * U.S. high school students Note: Table made from pie chart A graphical representation of information in which each unit of data is represented as a pie-shaped piece of a circle. See business graphics. . </pre> <p>1. The greatest share of teens gets news from which medium daily or several times a week?-- 2. Which news medium is least popular among teens?-- 3. What percentage of teens always discuss the news?-- 4. What percentage never do?-- 5. How often do most of the teens discuss news with friends or family?-- Answers: 1. TV (67 percent) 2. newspapers (33 percent) 3. 18 percent 4. 8 percent 5. some of the time (44 percent) STANDARDS SOCIAL STUDIES, GRADES 5-8 * Civic ideals and practices: The importance of First Amendment free-press rights in a democratic society. * Individuals, groups, and institutions: How news media and government affect one another, as well as a nation's citizens. RESOURCES * Ali, Dominic, Media Madness: An Insider's Guide to Media (Kids Can Press, 2005). Grades 6-10. * Cooper, Alison, Media Power? (Sea to Sea Publications, 2005), Grades 6-12. WEB SITES * Bob Wondward & Ben Bradlee achievement.org/autodoc/page/ woolint-1 * First Amendment Center FAQs firstamendmentcenter.org/Press /faqs.aspx * True Stories by Teens youthcomm.org |
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