By: Todd Shields Teaching the First Amendment In Public-Education Effort
WASHINGTON - Almost all Americans - 95% - believe people should be allowed to express unpopular opinions. But about half say the press in America has too much freedom.
Those survey results from last spring show broad but imperfect understanding of the First Amendment. In a bid to deepen appreciation of the U.S. Constitution's free-speech guarantees, media including newspapers have embarked upon a three-year, $5-million public-education effort - the Cornerstone Project.
The project was launched last week by the Media Institute, a Washington-based nonprofit research foundation specializing in communications policy. It will use advertisements, magazine articles, speaking engagements, and other methods to raise awareness of the First Amendment.
The project is not responding to current policy controversies that involve the First Amendment, such as whether to restrict campaign spending or to regulate violent content of films and TV, said Media Institute President Patrick D. Maines. He said the project would concentrate on raising awareness not inside but outside the Beltway.
Currently, public understanding of the First Amendment is "kind of a mixed bag," Maines said. "There is a wonderful reservoir of support in the abstract. But, in the particular, that starts to break down."
Maines said about two-thirds of the project's overall value would come from in-kind contributions of time by the likes of public-relations and advertising agencies. Funding parties include the Newspaper Association of America (NAA), the Magazine Publishers of America, and the American Association of Advertising Agencies. The National Association of Broadcasters will contribute about $400,000 over three years. The NAA has not decided its contribution, but it expects to be a substantial donor, an official said.
Todd Shields (tshields@editorandpublisher.com) is the Washington editor for E&P.
Copyright 2000, Editor & Publisher.
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