This evening I received a time slot for my radio show on the campus radio station. Although this seems like a common occurrence here in America, as the guidelines of what can and can't be said on the air were rattled off I started thinking exactly how incredible the freedom of speech we have is. I have the opportunity to express my opinions no matter how radical they may be on the radio as long as I don't do so in a vulgar way. And now that I think of it I could spout whatever nonsense I want on this blog too. As modern day Americans I think we sometimes fail to realize how great our freedom of speech is. On your radio you can find viewpoints from Rush Limbaugh's to Alex Jones's and anywhere in between. We take for granted this free press when other areas of the world are literally fighting and dying for this kind of freedom. Is the American media perfect? Of course not, but that's a topic for another blog post. The face of the press is changing daily though too. In today's world almost anyone in America could start a blog and many have. This personal expression is form a sort of new media where an outsider can look in and see just how many different citizens about an event because they're willing to tell the world through the internet, and they are certainly able. This new media could prove to be an enormously valuable resource. To quote an entry on The Library of Congress Blog on the Library's decision to archive every public tweet ever made on Twitter (found here):

 "I’m no Ph.D., but it boggles my mind to think what we might be able to learn about ourselves and the world around us from this wealth of data.  And I’m certain we’ll learn things that none of us now can even possibly conceive."


I think it's important for Americans to reflect on just how powerful all our voices can be, especially in a nation where they aren't being supressed by the government. It really is something many people take for granted.