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Jaclyn Gilbert

Professor: Valerie Fong

English 1S.01

18 Oct. 2017

Our Way Out!

Napoleon Bonaparte, a great military leader once said, Four hostile newspapers are more

to be feared than a thousand bayonets. What he is saying, is that while bayonets can kill and

mame, and harm, newspapers on the other hand, or just words, can change the world as we know

it. Free press is one of the most powerful weapons that any nation can weild. Free press can be

argued as pointless and irrelevant, but it is much more. In David Hoffmans book, Citizens

Rising, free press is illustrated as empowering and life changing and that is exactly what it is.

Free press empowers people, forces changes in behavior, and is modernizing.

Free press empowers people with information, so that they can become more aware, and

ultimately give people a voice in their community. In Citizens Rising, David Hoffman explains,

Free and independent media are leveling this playing field and are empowering people with the

information they need to take control of their lives (1). There are many countries still today, that

live in information poverty that limits their ability to compete in the global economy and to

participate in the most important decisions that affect them (Hoffman 1). Free press spreads

information about the world and exposes people to information that can shape their opinions and

thought process. Free press media allows people to speak freely. It finally gives people, who

were silenced by censorship, a voice. Media opens the window to freely discuss topics that had

once been strictly forbidden. Having a voice means people are able to make their own decisions
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and gain control of their lives. People finally having access to more information than ever before

and the freedom to express their opinions, forced social change.

Through media, free press forces significant change in behavior patterns, norms, and

cultural values. Hoffman emphasizes that, the information revolution recognizes our rights as

equal members of civil society to access news and information about the world we live in (4).

Advances in technology is the reason why social changes are required. Societies have become

dependent on accessing their media for information on electronic devices. Media is forcing

transformation and change in societies with traditional values. Social change challenges

traditional societies and opens the window to modernity(Hoffman, 49). Free press is

significant for social progress and change and it does help societies become more modern.

Free press gives countries the freedom to break through the cultural norms by giving the

citizens a society heading towards modernity. Hoffman claims, Afghanistan has become an

extraordinary example of how, thanks largely to media and new digital technologies, a

fantastically undeveloped society can leapfrog to modernity in a single decade (33).

Afghanistan was a country that was deprived of any sort of media under Taliban rule, but since

the Taliban is no longer in power, the country had made strides and cultural changes to become

more modernized. Hoffman explains that, Two societies now coexist: one modern, young,

media-savvy, and connected; the other devout, insular, traditionally misogynous and resistant to

change (33). Nonetheless, the citizens craved the national identity. Afghanistan modernized its

society by transforming its cultural behaviors and norms. Hoffman claims, no change was as

profound or disruptive as the emerging new status of women (51). Women refused to wear

burkas and their status was changing from their status in their traditional society. Free press is
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important for the leap into modernity because as a nation we are followers, so we take our cues

from other nations and other development societies.

Free press is extremely important and without it we, as individuals as well as a nation,

would be lost. It gives us knowledge, which empowers us to make our own decisions. It gives us

a voice to fight for what we believe in and to never stop fighting. Free press forces changes in

our behaviors, our culture norms and values. It gives us the opportunity to grow, evolve, and take

steps into our future. Free press also pushes open the door to modernity. It allows us to break out

of our old ways into the new ways of the future. Free press gives us, as individuals, the power to

change the world with the power of words. It also gives us, as a nation, as a whole, the power to

understand each other, to empathize with each other, and the power to help each other. Without

those newspapers, without free press, without those little words, who knows where we would be?

Honestly, probably in an underdeveloped country still trying to find our way out. Free press is

our way out of the past and our way into the future!
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Works Cited

Gladstone, Brooke and Josh Neufeld. The Influencing Machine: Brooke Gladstone on the Media.

W.W.Norton & Company, Inc., 2011.

Hoffman, David. Citizens Rising Independent Journalism and the Spread of Democracy. CUNY

Journalism Press, 2013