…Shall Make No Law…

Journalist/blogger Jay Rosen describes blogs as “little First Amendment machines” because they encourage such an immediate and critical forum of opinion and are well-suited to bringing about significant democratic change. This refers to ALL blogs, not just those that specifically concentrate on constitutional or civil liberties issues.

Shall Make No Law’s mission is to oil the gears in the First Amendment machine by providing context, timeliness, and ideally, a central hub of conversation.

The “First Amendment community” is a tough one to pin down because it is entrenched within virtually every blog on the Web. Everyone has opinions on freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of religion; many of the bloggers discussing such issues may see themselves as individuals, when in reality they are connected with sites such as mine with an outward focus on each of these specific areas. As such, SMNL is an ideal gathering place for people from all over the political spectrum and all over the online world.

In order to get some perspective on my community, I consulted a 2007 survey conducted for the First Amendment Center by the Center for Survey Research and Analysis. In the survey, respondents answered questions about their thoughts on the First Amendment and the rights they felt it afforded them. One interesting item was the response to the statement “The First Amendment goes too far in the rights it guarantees.” About 25% of those surveyed said they agreed or strongly agreed with this statement.

It should also be noted that only 15% of those answering this survey cited the Internet as their #1 news source.

This week I conducted an informal online survey of readers, bloggers and other people with interest in online news. I gathered 20 responses from a broad range of people, many of whom indicated a more liberal perspective on First Amendment issues than the respondents of the larger survey conducted in 2007 through the First Amendment Center. This trend reflects my experiences in maintaining SMNL, because I have found that many people who regularly write on these issues are either liberal or very liberal.

Here is the breakdown from the original survey:

And here is how this week’s respondents answered:

The First Amendment “Community”

There are a few distinct categories of people I’ve found to be especially interested in coming online to read about or discuss these issues:

• Students (especially those at schools I discussed in posts)
• Journalists interested in keeping up on the Freedom of the Press debate
• Independent and general interest bloggers who occasionally or regularly write about their own opinions on free speech and other assorted issues

Demographics:
Because the community extends so broadly into the online world, it is all but impossible to clearly define their demographics. The respondents of my recent survey, however, provided a glimpse of what a typical reader might look like:

• 75% were between the ages of 19-30; 25% were older than 30
• More than half had gone beyond the undergraduate level to pursue Master’s or professional degrees
• 75% listed the Internet as their primary source for news
• More than half consult 4 or more online news sources each week
• Many have their own blogs (mostly are personal interest)

Where do they get their information?

With such an overwhelming amount of the news audience turning to the Internet, it becomes increasingly important for sites like mine to stay on top of every new development. The traditional media outlet, at least from my audience’s perspective, are beginning to lag behind. Here’s how they ranked in the readers’ lists of their top sources for news:

• Internet 75%
• Television 15%
• Newspapers 10%
• Radio 0%
• Magazines 0%
• Other 0%

When asked to rank their most-used news sources from 1 (most used) to 6 (least used), they collectively indicated more reliance on newspapers than TV, but the Internet was still king:

• Internet 1.55
• Newspapers 2.5
• TV 3.1
• Magazines 4
• Radio 4.1
• Other 5.75

Blog Network

In my Overview, I touched on several of the major blogs and websites driving the First Amendment community’s online presence:

• Foundation for Individual Rights in Education
  • A site that relentlessly tracks each new development on the student civil liberties front. They were a major source of news for SMNL, touching on hot topics such as student speech codes, limits of professors’ speech and administrative handling of student publications
• First Amendment Center
  • An invaluable source of up-to-date information on new First Amendment developments. They compile reports from major media outlets and the Associated Press, but there is not much of an online forum or blog-like aspect to the site.
• FOIA Blog
  • A smaller but regularly updated blog that posts news snippets and offers commentary on these items. A very good source of primary source documents such as court records.
• GetReligion.org
  • An interesting site that tracks and critiques press coverage of religious news items
• Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
  • A site made by journalists for journalists, dedicated to highlighting the most recent developments relating to media rights and open acces

Online and Offline Participation

A large part of the First Amendment debate happens online, in a grassroots fashion. This can take the form of a large website like F.I.R.E., a smaller issue-oriented blog like the FOIA Blog, or even a specific organization’s blog/site that can be used as a base for coordinating meetings and events such as marches or protests. One example is the First Amendment Center’s “FOIA Day Conference” event held on Friday, during which speakers and panels discussed the transparency (or lack thereof) in government proceedings.