Chapter 8-The Rediscovery of The First Amendment

In my opinion and prehaps in the opinions of many, the first amendment is if not the most, one of the most important amendment. Without this amendment that advocated freedom of speech , many of us would not be where we are today, in that sense communications and mass media would not exist. in the basic formulas of the equations that the mass media creates for individuals , includes freedom of speech. Without freedom of speech mass media would not exist. "It was during the progressive era, particularly between 1910 and 1917 that a free speech movement began to stir and writers and artists in rebellion against genteel culture discovered a common cause with radical dissenters on the left in the battle against censorship. A new Generation of young intellectuals , convinced that America's old Puritan "Hypocrisy stood in the way of honest understanding and full enjoyment of life, sought to open up discussion of sex, birth control, and forbidden subjects" (Starr pg 268). It is evident from the quote above presented from Paul Starr's "The Creation of the Media" that freedom of speech was something that many undoubtedly feared. it seems as if America was a country that lived by censorship. the act of censorship in my opinion creates a division among society, because many cater to the rules and regulations of censorship that our government feeds us while others rebel against censorship in society. in a sense i am glad that the first amendment was never destroyed..without it we just would be a society living for rebellion