Free State Kansas is now a few months old, still young, still growing, and has been very well received. The concept is simple. The largest newspapers in Kansas are being bought by out-of-state media conglomerates, and in many cases staff at those papers are being cut. At the same time, our state’s smallest newspapers are slowly disappearing. In a very short period of time we are seeing the quality and character of local Kansas journalism being diminished.
Journalism isn’t dying, but journalism is changing.
Free State Kansas aims to preserve local Kansas journalism by radically empowering Kansans to tell their own story by making it easier for all Kansans to exercise their individual freedoms of speech and the press.
One might think that facilitating the exercise of constitutional rights of speech and the press would be universally popular. For most it is, but incredibly some have objected. So far those objections have taken two main themes:
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Individuals objecting to the empowerment of voices ideologically different from their own.
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Professional journalists objecting to normal citizens exercising their freedom of the press, arguing that citizens do not have the same journalistic qualifications or aptitude.
The first objection has been the most common. Our society is trending increasingly partisan, even to the point where unrestricted freedom of speech is now controversial. Some dissenters would prefer that Free State Kansas suppress opposing voices, but is an oppressive society the one we want? Free State Kansas will continue to operate on the principle that the free exchange of ideas leads to deeper level diversity - a diversity of thinking - which should be embraced and exercised in a free society.
The second objection comes from professional journalists pitting themselves against common people. It was recently suggested by a journalist commenting on the Free State Kansas Facebook Page that normal citizens are not capable of practicing journalism because they lack the training and expertise. Fortunately, that suggestion that only an elitist press should publish was not embraced by our founding fathers, who instead granted freedom of the press as a constitutional right of EVERY American citizen.
While members of the press may lack confidence in citizen journalists, it’s no secret that the American public also lacks confidence in the performance of traditional media. According to Gallup, newspapers have a -17 point approval rating, and television news polls a dreary -25. It’s even more concerning that six companies own more than 90% of the traditional media content we consume.
As every generation of Americans before us, we must decide whether we value individual liberty more than the concentration of power among an elite few. If we do, the best way to defend our liberties is to exercise them.
Members of the press may continue to criticize Free State Kansas’ empowerment of citizen journalism. They do so because traditional journalism is indeed changing and they know it. The acceptance of and adaptation to that change is difficult for them, but freedom of the press has always belonged to the people, and in the digital age new access to publishing power means that citizens are using that freedom more than ever before.