Introduction

In my Intro to Media class, my professor Dean-Walker instructed us to ask 5-7 people from two different age groups (3 men and 3 women) about how they felt a new proposed law. The is described as the First Amendment, but the people were never told that. These are the following things I noticed in the age groups responses.

Analysis

The majority of both age groups seemed to agree with the majority of the freedoms, but each of them had rather different reasons. The older generation explained that they agreed with the freedoms as it would protect an individual, but the younger generation agreed with the majority of freedoms as it does better for all. The main freedom that caused disagreement was protection over Libel and Slander. Like with the overall freedoms from the older generation, they agreed with it as it protected individuals. The younger generation disagreed with this as they believed that people should be talked about negatively if they deserve it. Most of them would follow up with this describing why social medias like Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, etc exists and why also cancel culture is a thing.

Interpretation

This means that the older generation valued more of an individuals well-being while the newer generation valued overall society, even if one is negatively talked about, true or not. Both generations mostly agreed with this proposed law, but from what the newer generation said about Libel and Slander, that would go against the First Amendment.

Evaluation

What was the most surprising element to interviewing the generations was their overall knowledge on the first amendment. The older generation had 3/6 people (two males one female) that knew what was being talked about was the First Amendment. The younger generation would have all 6/6 know the First Amendment and in conversation would put further input about what changes the government should make to it. This led to the belief that the younger generation had much more concern about their freedoms as they are gonna be along longer while the older generation seemed to not care as much as most of them would give very short answers in conversation over the matter.

Engagement

The interview results follow along generally with the survey by Knight Foundation as more and more people from the younger generation seem to be more knowledgeable about the First Amendment than in previous years.