Get A-GRASP on the First Amendment

An Oasis in the Desert - A 1st Amendment Supporter Awards Ceremony at OC Dec. 4 at 1 p.m. in the Conservatory

Join us as we honor Dawn Shelton, owner of the Luther Register News, and Mark Thomas, executive director of the Oklahoma Press Association. Both journalism alumni of OC serve as an oasis of First Amendment support in news deserts in Oklahoma.

Shelton is the owner the Luther Register, an online newspaper in Luther, Oklahoma, which she started as a labor of love just a few years ago. Shelton’s reporting, often in her spare time around other jobs, has resulted in more transparency and citizen involvement in local government. In addition, Shelton’s reporting contributed to the creation of the Luther Pecan Festival, which has built community pride and resulted in more than 10,000 visitors coming to the now annual festival in November.

Thomas is the longtime executive director of the Oklahoma Press Association, a trade organization that serves daily and weekly newspapers across the state, with many of those existing as the only source of local news in those communities. The OPA also oversees the Oklahoma Newspaper Foundation and the Oklahoma Press Services; the ONF offers educational and charitable programs to students and communities across the state, while the OPS provides information to newspapers about advertising planning and placement. Thomas’ work as executive director also involves helping journalists with lobbying and Freedom of Information Requests from state and federal government officials. In 2013, Thomas received the Carter Bradley First Amendment Award from the Oklahoma Society of Professional Journalists.

This is event is made possible with a grant from the 1 For All program at Middle Tennessee State University’s Free Speech Center.

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A-GRASP

OC’s awards ceremony is funded in part by a grant from the 1 For All program at the Middle Tennessee State University Free Speech Center. In November and December, OC communication students have promoted awareness of the First Amendment by emphasizing the acronym A-GRASP, adapted from OC’s Distinguished Professor of Communication Philip Patterson.

A-GRASP represents the five freedoms of the First Amendment: the freedom to Ask Government to respond to complaints, the freedom of Religion, the freedom to peaceably Assemble, the freedom of Speech and the freedom of the Press.