Negative theory recognizes the press’s vulnerability to government retaliation.
The Future of Press Freedom: Democracy, Law, and the News in Changing Times
A project aimed at identifying and protecting core press functions
“The Future of Press Freedom: Democracy, Law, and the News in Changing Times,” piloted by the Institute’s 2023-2024 Senior Visiting Research Scholars RonNell Andersen Jones and Sonja R. West, brings together scholars from a number of interrelated fields, to answer critically important questions about how to identify performers of the press function for purposes of legal and constitutional protection. How, if at all, can we shape doctrine and legal policies that grant rights to those acting as proxies for the public without privileging the powerful over the weak? How can we distinguish performers of the press function from performers of other communicative functions? And what protections might be constitutional necessities for fulfilling the wider purpose of the First Amendment guarantee of freedom of the press?
The project examines these questions through a series of public conversations, blog posts, and essays and featured in a major symposium—entitled “The Future of Press Freedom: Democracy, Law, and the News in Changing Times,” held May 3, 2024, and an edited volume from Cambridge University Press (forthcoming in 2025).
Featured
The Future of Press Freedom
An introduction to "The Future of Press Freedom," a project featuring contributions from nearly 30 of the nation’s leading legal and media studies scholars
By RonNell Andersen Jones & Sonja R. WestEssays and Scholarship
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Legal Foundations for Non-Reformist Media Reforms
A positive-rights paradigm for guaranteeing a universal press system
By Victor Pickard -
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Innovation Policy and the Press
A survey of policy possibilities that could protect and sustain local news
By Christina Koningisor & Jacob Noti-Victor -
The Other Press Clauses
State-level press protections could supplement the First Amendment's Press Clause
By Christina Koningisor -
Recursive Press Freedom as the Capacity to Control and Learn From Mistakes
Toward a self-constituting, self-aware, self-monitoring, and self-correcting synthetic press in an era of generative artificial intelligence
By Mike Ananny -
From Bloggers in Pajamas to the Gateway Pundit
How government entities do and should identify professional journalists for access and protection
By Richard L. Hasen -
Reconstructing the First Amendment: Teaching Disenfranchised Perspectives on Press Freedom
A case for a reparative journalism approach to teaching the First Amendment and press freedom
By Meredith D. Clark -
Policing Press Freedom
A discussion of the limitations of press exceptionalism
By Hannah Bloch-Wehba -
Distorting the Press
An exploration of First Amendment tools that protect publicly subsidized journalism against state capture
By Heidi Kitrosser -
The Future of Press Freedom
An introduction to "The Future of Press Freedom," a project featuring contributions from nearly 30 of the nation’s leading legal and media studies scholars
By RonNell Andersen Jones & Sonja R. West
Deep Dive
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Defamation Law and the Crumbling Legitimacy of the Fourth Estate
Although U.S. defamation law needs reform, eliminating “exceptionalism” will do little to solve the crisis of legitimacy facing the press.
By Lyrissa Lidsky -
Post-Newspaper Democracy and the Rise of Communicative Citizenship: The Good Citizen as Good Communicator
People, in addition to the media, should facilitate the flow of reliable civic information.
By Nik Usher -
Fitting a Square Peg into a Round Hole: Why Traditional Free Press Doctrines Fail in Dealing With Newer Media
There are areas of social media and the internet wherein existing First Amendment doctrine is likely to fail.
By Erwin Chemerinsky -
The Constitutional Exceptionalism of Religion & the Press
Protecting the press as an exceptional democratic institution
By Amanda Shanor -
Journalism and Academia: Knowledge Institutions Buttressing Constitutional Democracy
By Vicki C. JacksonAn analysis of two different knowledge institutions that serve democracies
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What Journalists “Know” About Our Free Press That Just Ain’t So
Journalists today share a nostalgia for a past that never was.
By Michael Schudson -
Are We Saving the News?
An analysis of the decline in local news sources and recommendations for reform
By Martha Minow -
Press Benefits and the Public Imagination
Rethinking rhetoric about the value of the press
By Erin Carroll -
Returning FOIA to the Press
A case for structural reforms to restore FOIA's value to journalists
By Margaret Kwoka -
The Long Shadow of Food Lion
A Fourth Circuit case has deterred undercover investigative journalism nationwide.
By Alan K. Chen -
Countering the Mosaic of Threats to Press Functions
There is a clear, democratic public interest in journalism—but the press continues to face a myriad of challenges.
By Lili Levi -
The Enduring Significance of New York Times Co. v. Sullivan
Sullivan protects fundamental press functions—its overruling would be devastating.
By Samantha Barbas -
“MURDER THE MEDIA”: Press Freedom, Violence, and the Public Sphere
Exploring the relationship between the press and violence in a democratic society
By Joseph Blocher -
A Professional Wrestler, Privacy, and the Meaning of News
How a more sacrosanct approach to terms like “press” and “news” can help privacy cases
By Amy Gajda -
The Press and American Democracy
Identifying four distinct constitutional functions of "the press"
By Robert C. Post -
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Political Tensions and the Democratic Press
Advocates for press freedom must confront the objectivity-subjectivity and institutionalism-populism divides.
By Gregory Magarian
Institute Update
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An Introduction to Our Project: The Future of Press Freedom
A cross-disciplinary initiative to identify and protect the role of the press
By RonNell Andersen Jones & Sonja R. West -
Call for Papers: New Voices in Press Freedom
The Knight Institute invites submissions from junior scholars exploring the news in changing times.
By RonNell Andersen Jones , Sonja R. West & Katy Glenn Bass