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| Chilling Effects Clearinghouse > Weather Reports > First Amendment Center Releases “State of the First Amendment 2013” Survey Results | Location: https://www.chillingeffects.org/weather.cgi?WeatherID=781 |
Liz Woolery, July 18, 2013
Abstract: Last week the First Amendment Center released the results of its annual "State of the First Amendment" survey. The Center has conducted the survey each year since 1997 with the goal of determining "public knowledge and opinion about the First Amendment and related issues."
The First Amendment Center released the results of its annual "State of the First Amendment" survey on Tuesday last week. The survey is conducted each year by the First Amendment Center, which is housed at Vanderbilt University and receives support from the Newseum, the Diversity Institute, and the Freedom Forum. This year 1,006 adults were surveyed; the Center has conducted the survey each year since 1997 with the goal of determining "public knowledge and opinion about the First Amendment and related issues."
Among the major findings:
The survey's results are noteworthy in themselves, but the findings are particularly interesting given the evolving information culture in which we live. Twenty-four hour news is the norm now, and so too is getting information from bloggers and social media networks. Despite the abundance of information sources, a significant number of Americans seem uninformed about the basic liberties and freedoms afforded by the First Amendment. This fact has implications for organizations like Chilling Effects, where one of our aims is to educate readers about threats of censorship and chilled speech online. But there is a certain amount of balancing and give-and-take that is required to achieve this goal. How do you talk about the DMCA without first explaining the link between copyright law and the First Amendment? How do you discuss the First Amendment implications of the NSA's PRISM program when a third of Americans can't name a single right protected by that amendment? Or how do you talk about the finding that 44% of those surveyed believe journalists should be required to reveal sources, when journalists, academic, and legislators alike are all struggling to define "who is a journalist"?
At Chilling Effects we want to help you understand more about current threats to freedom of expression, particularly in the online context. And we approach this goal with with the public's understanding of freedom of expression in mind. You can check out the First Amendment Center's full report here and tables of results here. The Center's coverage of this year's survey results can be found here, here, and here.
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