The great country of America was started because people wanted independence and freedom to live their lives within their own restrictions. Media is a part of that life. Before discussing the importance of free and independent news, we must recognize what "news media" truly is, by finding out where it all started. The freedom of news media began with the 1st amendment. As a citizen of this thriving nation, it is each individual’s responsibility to take to heart what is going on nationally and globally. Free and independent news media has become a significant part of the American lifestyle; it sets us apart from other nations.
Media, coming from the Latin word "medium," correlates to each journalist’s position in the transporting of information. Throughout the Roman civilization, the spreading of news was important. We have come so far since then, adding thousands of newspapers, magazines, radios, and television stations that broadcast the news to the whole world. On January 22, 2010, actors a musicians joined forces to broadcast a relief drive for the country of Haiti. Broadcasting from 40 different channels with 83 million viewers, it raised more than 66 million dollars. That is a tremendous impact. The people came together and helped a country. The First Amendment gives us the right to have the news and the media.
There is no way anyone can think of America’s top 10 accomplishments without choosing the 234-year-old Constitution. Our nation’s freedom was a priority to our forefathers, as it to us today. When the first 10 amendments were written, the honorable men holding the pen to the fundamental law of the United States of America chose to put the rights of religion, speech, and assembly in the First Amendment. "Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech." How different society would be without just one little word in that phrase, "no." Imagine America without the freedom of speech.
We have a right to say what we believe. We have the right to report news without reflecting our political bias. We have the right to speak out against abortion, capital punishment, and the war in the Middle East. Independent news media has kept the people’s beliefs in the forefront of the government’s agenda. Through free and independent news media, citizens are a vital part of this great country.
Independent news media frees the people’s own ideas and outlaws the government from becoming all powerful. It allows each of us to freely express our own opinion, just as I am doing within this essay. I thank God for our Constitution and our rights and freedoms. Without freedom, we could not have become the nation that we are today.