Democracy needs Journalism and the First Amendmen

The first Friday of the semester our teacher instructed us to write an essay on why Democracy needs journalism and the First Amendment. Here is my revised draft.

Journalists and the First Amendment help us as public to know what is going on the world and in our own country as well. Newspapers and news broadcasts across the country help reveal new and sometimes frightening information to us about our own government. They help us to keep our own system of checks and balances on the government from a civilian standpoint. This aspect of our country is vital to maintaining our democracy as a whole

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Democracy needs journalism and the First Amendment for three reasons; to keep the government and citizens in check, allow citizens to freely express their opinions, and it creates an educated public. The state of our country and community is based solely on how the public sees things, and journalists have a lot to do with changing the perspective of the country as a whole.

The Frist Amendment states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” This amendment has always been the foundation of our democratic system, and is one of the more well-known amendments to our constitution.

Second, is the fact that the First Amendment and journalism allow us as citizens of this democracy to share our opinions with the world, without fear of retribution from the government. For example, recently Pakistan banned some 150 words from being sent via text message by citizens. That sort of thing cannot happen in the United States, thanks to the First Amendment and the freedoms it protects.

Lastly, and probably most importantly is that journalism with help from the First Amendment helps to create an educated population, which in turn creates a more educated country as a whole. This helps come election time because every debate is televised and every candidate has a journalist nipping at his/her heels everywhere they go. This helps to weed out the bad seeds and lets the public make an informed an educated vote come election day.

So in conclusion, Democracy needs journalism and the First Amendment because it helps perform a system of checks and balances on the government, it allows citizens to share and discuss their opinions in the public eye, and last it creates a more educated public.