New Knight Study Released on The Future of the First Amendment

Published: Dec. 14, 2018.

A news stand outfitted with “Fake News” headlines for a stunt pulled off by the Columbia Journalism Review, New York, New York, U.S., October 30, 2018. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri

A newly released report by the Knight Foundation examines how high school students’ attitudes about the First Amendment are changing and what it means for the future of democracy.

The national study of 9,774 high school students and 498 teachers is the eighth in a series of surveys of high school students and teachers commissioned by Knight Foundation over the last 12 years.

The Knight Foundation identified seven key findings from the report:

Students expressed strong support for the First Amendment but favor some limits on free speech.
News engagement and trust has declined.
Students are increasingly trusting in citizen journalism.
Students believe that social media has a negative effect on free expression.
Students attribute a rise in hate speech to the internet.
Most students don’t believe “fake news” is a threat to democracy.
More high school students than college students believe that hate speech should be protected by the First Amendment.

2018 Future of the First Amendment

Tags

Democracy First Amendment Literacy Freedom of Expression High School Knight First Amendment Institute Student's Speech

Mapping First Amendment Conflicts

The endless challenges to freedom of expression raise vital questions of constitutional law and the place of free speech in a democratic society. Click on the map icons to get brief descriptions of controversies large and small (from 2018 to the present), as well as links to more information.

New Survey Reveals Most Americans Value the First Amendment But are Divided on Key Issues

A new survey released by the Freedom Forum entitled, “The First Amendment: Where America Stands,” reveals that while 94% of Americans value the First Amendment as vital, they are nonetheless divided on certain key issues. Many Americans appear reluctant to engage in speech that may be seen as controversial. According to the survey of 3,000 Americans in July and August 2020, more than four in 10 people say that, at least once, they haven’t expressed an opinion out of fear of being punished.

New Report Shows Uptick in Professors Punished for Controversial Speech

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education released a report on August 31st highlighting a growing pattern of university students and outside groups calling for schools to punish professors for statements they made on sensitive political issues. The study showed that the number of targeting incidents against professors has risen precipitously since 2015.

Investigation into NYPD’s Response to George Floyd Protests Found Officers Violated First Amendment

A new report found that NYPD officers deployed during the George Floyd protests this summer "failed to discriminate between lawful, peaceful protesters and unlawful actors,” and frequently resorted to aggressive crowd control tactics that failed to adequately take protesters' expressive rights into consideration.