Report by Gallup, The Knight Foundation and the Newseum Institute: “The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees Americans freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of assembly, freedom of the press and the right to petition the government without retribution. The ways in which the First Amendment has been interpreted and applied over time have formed the contours of our modern society, determining the types of expression that American institutions and citizens will and will not defend, as well as the role of the press and media in supporting an informed society. Today, some of these basic rights are the subject of significant debate — particularly on college campuses. Numerous college protests last fall focused on the boundaries of appropriate behavior and speech regarding issues of race, reflecting student concerns about a negative social climate for members of minority groups. These protests and the broader discussion of these issues on college campuses have not escaped the attention of many Americans — 61% of U.S. adults and 71% of college students report hearing a “great deal” or “fair amount” about the protests. Those protests brought fundamental issues concerning the First Amendment into clear relief — most notably, when  students and a professor at the University of Missouri attempted to prevent members of the press from covering one of their protests. To better understand the emerging discussion on college campuses about the First Amendment, free expression and diversity on campus, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation partnered with the Newseum Institute to support a nationally representative survey of U.S. college students. As part of the study, Gallup also posed a subset of the same questions to a large, nationally representative sample of U.S. adults and a smaller representative sample of U.S. Muslims. This report details the findings of those surveys..”