Freedom of the press is important to any democracy and indeed functional society. We take it for granted in America, only discussing it in between our complaints about how awful news has gotten.
But as newspapers fade, as news changes (and merges with entertainment), as blogging alters what journalism is, then what is the press? Certainly by broad definition there’s a lot more of it, and we often see laws disrespecting traditional press.
As “press” evolves, and has it’s conflict (which often seem to be someone-versus-bloggers), as entertainment and ratings keeps driving news (often to insanity), the question of what is the press and what freedom means will keep coming up. Sadly, I expect them to come up after horrible occurrences and bad laws, but come up they will.
Of course it all comes down to freedom period. But that’s a subject that is thornier than many realize, and too often people are a bit narrow on that whole freedom thing beyond their own concerns.
Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach. He blogs on careers at http://www.fantopro.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.