Public Attitudes Toward Freedom of the Press

Abstract

This article presents findings on a study of public attitudes toward the rights and responsibilities of the media. Public thinking about freedom of the press appears to be dominated by a principle of fairness. Specifically, people want and expect the communications media to provide equal coverage to opposing political candidates and to present both sides of controversial issues. Despite other studies showing a lack of political tolerance, the public is willing to permit considerable diversity in the points of view that are presented in the media. Although the public rejects many proposals for censorship laws, it does support fairness-enhancing laws. The authors hypothesize that the public's perspective on freedom of the press grows out of its role as listeners rather than as speakers. John Immerwahr is an Associate Professor of philosophy at Villanova University, and a research fellow of the Public Agenda foundation. John Doble is a Senior Research Associate at the Public Agenda Foundation. This article was adapted from The Speaker and the Listener: A Public Perspective on Freedom of Expression (New York: Public Agenda Foundation, 1980), by John Immerwahr, Jean Johnson, and John Doble, The research was supported by a grant from the John and Mary R. Markle Foundation. Daniel Yankelovich, President of the Public Agenda, supervised the original project, and the authors are indebted to him for his help and suggestions. Jean Johnson read and commented on earlier drafts of this article. For more detailed information about the findings, contact the Roper Data Center, Storrs, Connecticut 06268. Public Opinion Quarterly Vol. 46:177-194 ? 1982 by The Trustees of Columbia University Published by Elsevier Science Publishing Co., Inc. 0033-362X/82/0046-177/$2.50 This content downloaded from 207.46.13.100 on Thu, 02 Mar 2017 04:15:24 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 178 IMMERWAHR AND DOBLE