Technology and the First Amendment

My first day at Chips Quinn orientation was deja vu of two important themes that have been drilled in my head since I started journalism school at the University of Southern California.

First was multimedia journalism. I noticed that several other Scholars also said they wanted to gain more multimedia experience during their internships. Professors at my school have foretold, warned and downright threatened us that the "the times they are a changin' " in journalism. The future is moving toward multimedia and, if we wanted to have a future, we better get on board or sink like a stone, they say. From the sound of it, computer illiteracy is synonymous with death, so I hope to learn Web journalism as well as print.

Another theme dealt with journalism's past: the First Amendment. We were told that some time during the weekend we even would have to recite it. A video was shown about the Newseum that stressed the importance of the First Amendment to a democratic society. This mirrored lectures at USC about the history of journalism in America. The lectures also declared that in order to remain a free and informed society we must have freedom of speech.

Multimedia and the First Amendment tie together nicely because they represent the old and the new. They represent our roots in freedom of speech and a modern explosion of technology that helps us express our freedom. It still remains to be seen whether this modern technology will stifle freedom of speech or expand it. But the First Amendment and technology are important issues, and I was glad to hear them mentioned on my first day of orientation.

-- Leland Ornelaz, University of Southern California, The Wenatchee (Wash.) World