rukidding’s Techdirt Profile

rukidding

About rukidding




rukidding’s Comments comment rss

  • Jun 7th, 2013 @ 10:10am

    Journalism or Press?

    It seems that a lot of the comments imply that the First Amendment protects journalism. However, nowhere in the text of the First Amendment does it mention journalism. Instead, it uses the term press. I think a lot of people use the word press to mean newspapers and then make the leap that journalists working for newspapers are the target of the protection of the First Amendment's press clause. My understanding of the use of the word press in the context of the First Amendment is simply any document that anyone makes with the expectation (or hope) that it will be viewed by the public. Back in the time when the First Amendment was created, a popular way to get your opinion out to the public was to create and distribute a pamphlet; the creation being done with a printing press. With the advent of the Internet, there is no longer a need to produce a physical document via a press to make it publicly available. In this context, I may not necessarily do things that others would necessarily consider to be journalism; but, the mere fact of me producing something (anything) for public view should be enough for it to be considered press in the context of the First Amendment.

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it