Two new resources are designed to help Americans learn more about the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
First Amendment Academy, developed by the Freedom Forum and NEWSWELL, is a series of free 10- to 20-minute online courses about the amendment’s five freedoms: press, speech, religion, assembly and petition.
A Matter of Fact, a civic-education project produced by Colorado filmmaker Brian Malone in partnership with 9NEWS (with the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition as fiscal sponsor), focuses on the importance of free expression and independent journalism in a democracy. It includes a series of short videos and a one-hour documentary, Truth Be Told, that will air on 9NEWS in November and be screened around the state afterward.
A Freedom Forum survey this year found that general awareness of the First Amendment is high, and nine in 10 people agree it is “vital.” But a quarter of Americans cannot name even one of the five freedoms without prompting.
“While 73% of people surveyed could recall freedom of speech without aid, only 37% could identify freedom of religion — the second most identified freedom. Freedom of petition, historically the least known freedom, continues to have low unaided awareness at 13%,” the survey discovered.
Only 25% of people, unaided, could identify freedom of the press as a First Amendment right.
“More than a quarter (28%) of respondents were unclear about how the First Amendment affects their everyday lives, a five-point increase from last year, answering either that the First Amendment does not affect their daily lives or that they are not sure how it does,” the Freedom Forum reported.
The First Amendment Academy includes 15 interactive courses, 25 flash quizzes and digital badges to mark your progress.
“The real innovation is how the academy can be used in places people are already learning and engaging — from classrooms and civic programs to newsletters and local news stories,” says a blog post by NEWSWELL, a journalism-support nonprofit based at Arizona State University. “Instead of requiring people to go elsewhere, the learning arrives right where they are. Readers don’t have to go searching for resources; the learning appears right alongside the reporting or teaching that sparked their curiosity.”
The quizzes, such as the case study below of New York Times v. Sullivan, can be embedded on a website.
The Matter of Fact project comprises 12 chapters with short videos that can be shared on Instagram and other social media platforms. The one-hour documentary will profile several Colorado journalists around the state “on the job, in an up close and personal point of view, as they dig into the issues, investigate wrongdoing, and hold governments and people of power accountable,” according to a news release from Malone’s Fast Forward Films.
