In my recent Middle Ground posting a few days back I hit on something that even was news to me. It’s something that’s really hit me, blindsided me, really, out of nowhere, and that’s the realization of the press freedom. I don’t mean press freedom, necessarily in the way that we think of the press, or journalists today, but rather a more literal meaning, when printing and disseminating information was a profoundly significant right. One that’s so far removed from our contemporary understanding of the publishing, and the ramifications of such possibilities.

I was pleased when I found this blurb actually framing my literal definition of press freedom and citizen journalism here in the Wikipedia:

This might seem radical to some, but the idea that average citizens can engage in the act of journalism has a long history in the United States. Professor Mary-Rose Papandrea, a constitutional law professor at Boston College, notes in her article Citizen Journalism and the Reporter’s Privilege that

[i]n many ways, the definition of journalist has now come full circle. When the First Amendment was adopted, “freedom of the press” referred quite literally to the freedom to publish using a printing press, rather than the freedom of organized entities engaged in the publishing business. The printers of 1775 did not exclusively publish newspapers; instead, in order to survive financially they dedicated most of their efforts printing materials for paying clients. The newspapers and pamphlets of the American Revolutionary era were predominantly partisan and became even more so through the turn of the century. They engaged in little newsgathering and instead were predominantly vehicles for opinion.

The passage of the term “journalism” into common usage in the 1830s occurred at roughly the same time that newspapers, using highspeed rotary steam presses, began mass circulation throughout the eastern United States. Using the printing press, newspapers could distribute exact copies to large numbers of readers at a low incremental cost. In addition, the rapidly increasing demand for advertising for brand- name products fueled the creation of publications subsidized in large part by advertising revenue. It was not until the late nineteenth century that the concept of the “press” morphed into a description of individuals and companies engaged in an often competitive commercial media enterprise.

The first paragraph absolutely frames my personal notion of press freedom, both as a blogger, and a letterpress printer.

I’ve had the pleasure of being kind of hit with numerous mentions of press freedom, and the like over the course of the last few days.

First, there was an interesting, and rather sad story on book publishing in Iran.

Weekend Edition Saturday, January 6, 2007 · For the most part, former president Mohammed Khatami left the publishing industry alone. But President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s censors are holding up the printing of thousands of books.

You can check out the NPR story here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6734091

This story shows just how far we have not come in certain parts of the world. Press freedom is abused in places like the US and the UK. However, there are places like Iran where tyrannous governments are halting publishing, and the publishing of opinion.

On the flipside of that, is this article from Andy Abramson where he talks about the freedom of the citizen journalist on the web, and goes into the details of the tools available to the citizen journalist. However, it’s this quote that I liked the best and found the most in keeping with my own philosophy:

On the human, um Public level, this also means, the usually dismissive approach many old school PR people have taken towards bloggers and online journalists will have to change. Heck it better. Bloggers are now as important to the established companies as the mainstream media have always been…

I guess it was only a matter of time before I recognized the profound significance of blog-style reporting, and the citizen journalist. After all, whether it was with my letterpress, my first music journalism site, or my (brief) foray into broadcast journalism I was getting a message out into the world. The blog and the web have just empowered the everyperson so that nobody is excluded from this freedom.