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First Amendment

The first amendment is widely recognizable. It contains the rights that define our freedom as Americans. People take great pride in the freedoms guaranteed by this amendment. Over the break, I interviewed friends and family about their views of the specific freedoms guaranteed by this amendment. 

“I think those are guaranteed human rights,” my friend Rylie Jo McDonald said. Then she corrected herself: “nothing is guaranteed, but [these are] rights that every human should be given.” 

Rylie, a high school senior, recognized these freedoms as the first amendment. 

My cousin, Emery Hassebroek, is a few years younger. As an eighth-grader, she just learned about the constitution at school. 

“Those are rights that everyone should have, and some of those are also in the constitution.”

When I asked her if she thought any of the freedoms went too far, she expressed the limitations and the importance of freedom, especially free speech.

“I don’t think you should be able to say, like, whatever you want cause some of those things might be bad. There’s things causing harm to people and stuff causing a lot of fear…but I do agree they should have the right to be able to talk.”

My aunt, Paige Larson, a member of an older generation, had a similar response. 

Her simple answer was yes, these freedoms are good. However, she recognized nuances of different situations.

“It’s kind of hard to know exactly…there’s none of those that I disagree with at face value without knowing more about the details. Anything can be distorted or twisted.”

These issues that my family members pointed out are the reasons the country has had supreme court cases specifying the limitations of the freedoms established in the first amendment. 

My mom, Lizzie Zimmerman, also recognized the amendment and supported the freedoms it provides.

“Yes, I would agree with those things,” she said. “I think everyone should be able to voice their opinion without repercussions…is this a real law or are we talking about, or the first amendment?”

Another peer, my cousin Evie Larson, also agreed with the freedoms.

“It’s America; you can’t have too much freedom. It’s what we live off of…I have always followed this law. No one is stopping me from saying what I want.”

She did, however, recognize questions about these freedoms in regard to the internet.

While there were different levels of confidence in recognizing the first amendment, everyone I interviewed was familiar with it and in favor of it, regardless of age. 

As Americans who have grown up with a reverence for these freedoms, my interviewees were quick to point out their value. This pattern shows that these rights are not something people take lightly. I was impressed with the thought put into the responses, especially in regards to the limitations of these freedoms. This thoughtfulness shows true respect for freedom and the issues that must be recognized in order to uphold it.

In a recent national survey of views on the first amendment, some similar recognition of the need for limitations was expressed, though in general, there was increased support of the amendment. 

In summation, these responses show the power of the freedoms in the first amendment, as well as the importance of wielding this power responsibly. 

Sources: https://knightfoundation.org/reports/high-school-student-views-on-the-first-amendment:-trends-in-the-21st-century/

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Happy Halloween!

Hope everyone had a spooky and fun Halloween.

To help get us all in the Halloween spirit, our class worked on a set of scary short stories this week. Every student wrote a piece centered around the fictional Greenbriar House. From the long and detailed history of the house we were given, I chose to write a narrative set in the early 40s. The background we were given and my story make up the rest of this post. Enjoy!

“1939—the house is sold again, only this time it’s turned into a home for the mentally ill. The house is renamed the Donald Haynes Institute of Mental Health after the director of the home. The establishment takes care of wealthy patients families want hidden away.”

“1941—World War Two begins and stories are told about the various inmates at the hospital. Reporters constantly try to penetrate security to get pictures of the famous inmates. Some of those reporters go missing, as well as orderlies and staff. More than a dozen deaths happen there over the next ten years. Some are suicides. Some are murders. Other people disappear. And there are constant ghostly sightings.”

Greenbriar House 1945 – by Jessica Zimmerman

They shouldn’t have brought me here.

I have my room, my chair, my bed, and my sink. I have the bland food, the pale pills, and the dull nurses that arrive at my door on a regular schedule four times a day if I behave. I do not have my knives and tools, my books and diagrams on the human body, nor my lists and ledgers and bottles and chemicals for mixing up strange and fascinating concoctions. 

That matters not, because I have my large, dusty window that looks over the back of the grounds – my window covered with ivy and carelessly crafted metal bars – bars that are hardly more substantial than the ivy itself. The windowpane rattles in the wind, and in the winters the cold seeps in at the seams. When it rains, puddles collect under the sill, and in the humid summers the moisture feeds the dark-colored mold that clings to the wall. But I love my window because when the wind howls, the sterile, white-clad figures that guard the halls at night can’t hear the scrape of the glass being raised open, nor the squeak of the bars being twisted aside. And if I hide my pills properly, the nurse assumes they’ve been consumed, and I have a peaceful, unbroken timeframe of six hours before they’ll bother to check my room. I squeeze my thin limbs through my treasured window and into the shadowy night. 

They shouldn’t have brought me here.

Here, where the outsiders say you’d hear voices and see whisps of those who once had been.

Here, where any havoc I care to wreak is dismissed because the nurses would rather not have to investigate the “mysterious forces” that might cause such occurrences. I do not fear the mysterious forces. The only mysterious forces at play are my own ruthlessness and cunning.

They say this house has a history of ghosts. I say it is only a history of people who care more for their own ambitions than for the well-being of their fellow man. Which is to be feared more?

They say you’ll hear voices. I hear them too, but I know they are only the voices in my head and the voices of my victims. I’ll be here for years, free to soak in the glory of my reign of terror. Freedom is simply a game of blending in and biding my time. 

They shouldn’t have brought me here, where they call me crazy and brush me aside, leaving me with all the power my heart desires. 

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Blog Reflection

Meeting new people was the most exciting part of my first few weeks on campus. I love talking to people with different backgrounds, majors, and outlooks. College is the time for broadening perspectives and exploring all the world has to offer. I was eager to embrace these opportunities as soon as I arrived. 

When I began my blog, I wanted to capture the excitement I had for my new experiences and new friends. This was how I chose the topic of my blog: interviews. I’ve been able to use these interviews to discuss all sorts of things on campus, from football, to protests, to campus jobs. My interviews remind me to be intentional about sitting down to talk with friends and professors about their personal experiences. The excuse of “I am doing an interview for class” has served as an ice breaker when I want to ask a random stranger a question. 

One challenge that I expected was simple the difficulty of remembering to keep up with posting twice a week. I have to remember to ask someone to take time out of their day in advance. Oftentimes, it is Thursday night before I remember that I have yet to write out a single interview question for the week’s posts. Luckily, there are many people on campus that are willing to help with spontaneous interviews. 

It can also be challenging to format the quotes I gather. If I sit down to write a post the day after an interview, I may realize I am missing an important piece of information, but it is too late to call up my interviewee and ask for another comment. Because of this, some of my interviews are not as professional as I would like. I came into this blog without any knowledge about formal interviews. Although I have been complimented on my writing by friends and family who have read the blog, I know the style is far from journalistic. I hope to learn more about proper questions and formatting for my interviews before the semester ends. 

Lastly, one of the roadblocks I faced this semester was not knowing what I wanted to major in. Though I had originally planned to major in public relations, by the time I signed up for my classes, I had changed my mind. However, thanks to a last-minute schedule change, I ended up in Intro to Media anyway. Since I wasn’t planning to pursue a major in Gaylord College, I felt out of place. I did not make much of an effort to introduce myself to others in my class. However, as the semester has progressed, I realized how much I love Intro to Media, my blogging experience, and the time I’ve spent in Gaylord. Thanks to these experiences, I decided I will pursue a PR major. I know I still have time to change my mind, but this blog has helped me discover what I am passionate about. 

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Media Convergence

As someone who grew up with the internet, I don’t stop to appreciate it very often. Ironically, when I sat down to write this post, the wifi cut out on me. The immediate annoyance I felt just goes to show how much I take access to media for granted.

 Media convergence has great effects on the media in our daily lives. This is the concept of different types of mass media content merging. Mobile media, the internet, and social platforms are just a few of the things that enable this. 

In college, it is easy to see some of the ways convergence affects our relationship with media and with the internet. 

First, there is almost no delay in our connection with media (as long as the wifi is working). On campus, this can be seen in the mass emails that tell about clubs and events. When my parents were in college, fliers were put up or sent to mailboxes. Now I get notifications on my phone the minute information is released.

Additionally, we have access to multiple types of media all at once. During football games, talk show commentary can be streamed from a mobile device or computer. Live scores are updated via apps and the internet. News about the game, the players, and the opposing team contributes to our engagement with the game itself. 

Lastly, convergence has changed the variety of media we are exposed to. Since I got to Norman, my media has been limited to things relating to college. My Instagram feed is filled up with campus accounts. I pay more attention to campus news than current events. Convergence has shifted power to the individual when it comes to choosing what kind of mass media one engages with.

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Media Interactions

Welcome to the first post! To start off my blog, I am looking into questions about media. What is it about media that sparks my interest? As I explained on my About page, this blog will focus on my interactions at the University of Oklahoma. Similarly, what intrigues me most about media is how it impacts a person’s interactions with culture and the other people around them.

Whether it is film, literature, social platforms, or news, the media we take in has a major impact on our world view.

Think about it. So many of our cultural references come from quotable movies. These quotes easily become a part of our daily lives. How much more do the values and messages from these films get incorporated into our mindsets?

The news we get shapes our opinions of current events, but it also shapes the lens we are used to looking through. Buzz words like “fake news” and “unprecedented times” affect how we understand what is happening around us. The kinds of questions we listen to in interviews become part of how we analyze our day-to-day interactions.

As I go through this blog, I hope to gain insight into how to successfully create media that has a positive effect on those who engage with it. Further, I hope my experience running this blog will answer my questions about how I personally interact with the media.

That’s all for today! Check back soon for a review of the FIRST HOME FOOTBALL GAME!