The Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism recently published its 2011 "State of the Media" report. It said print and broadcast news audiences fell by shares ranging from 3.4 percent to 9 percent in 2010, with one exception. NPR's news audience grew 3 percent in 2010, and it has grown 58 percent since 2000.

It could indicate a growing public dissatisfaction, or just plain weariness, with information provided through media channels protected by the First Amendment guarantee of free speech, creating a public shift toward media channels protected by the First Amendment guarantee of a free press. The difference between the two? I will explain it as I do for students in my Media Literacy class at Grossmont College.

Here is the First Amendment: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." Let's first look at the press. In my class, the free press is defined as that media protected by the First Amendment guarantee of a free press, obligating it to act as a public gateway to information, analysis and commentary that meet journalism standards, definitions and principles. These gateway standards, definitions and principles include:

Accountability. The people are responsible for holding the free press accountable for the content it publishes.

The people are responsible for holding the free press accountable for the content it publishes. Accuracy. The free press is responsible for accuracy—facts, events, spelling, punctuation, grammar—of its content. Accuracy is a matter of credibility.

The free press is responsible for accuracy—facts, events, spelling, punctuation, grammar—of its content. Accuracy is a matter of credibility. Attribution. All information in a story must be attributed to a source, or an authority, who can verify the information as accurate. A reader should never think that information is coming from the reporter.

All information in a story must be attributed to a source, or an authority, who can verify the information as accurate. A reader should never think that information is coming from the reporter. Balance. The free press is responsible for reporting both sides of a story. Perfect balance is impossible, but balance must be present to the extent that it is recognizable to a media-literate person.

The free press is responsible for reporting both sides of a story. Perfect balance is impossible, but balance must be present to the extent that it is recognizable to a media-literate person. Completeness. In every story, the free press is responsible for answering all the questions the people may have, to the extent that the answers are known.

In every story, the free press is responsible for answering all the questions the people may have, to the extent that the answers are known. Editing. The free press is responsible for well-edited stories, making them factual and correct, to include spelling, punctuation and grammar.

The free press is responsible for well-edited stories, making them factual and correct, to include spelling, punctuation and grammar. Independence. Though the free press, like any other media, is a business, the news function of the free press must remain independent of business pressures. The free-press media have also come to be called the "mainstream media." Members of the mainstream media may be newspapers, magazines, books, recordings and television, radio, film and Internet programming, whose content meets the gateway requirements of a free press guarantee. Maintaining a strong free press is vital to a democracy, which in America is defined as a government "of the people, by the people, and for the people." The free press links the government to the people, and vice versa.

Quoting broadcast journalist and author Jeff Greenfield: "The bedrock theory of the free press is that once society decides to invest ultimate power in the people, they must have access to the widest possible range of information."

Examples of free-press media include The San Diego Union-Tribune, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times and ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN news operations, and, as a news provider, La Mesa Patch, whose editor, Ken Stone, is a free-press journalist and keeper of the gateway standards at LMP.

All other media, though they won't qualify for free-press protection, still receive the protection of the First Amendment's "free speech" guarantee. Providers of free-speech media have First Amendment protection to express a wide range of views on an infinite number of subjects. Many times, the view becomes the product.