Walter Lippmann said, "News and truth are not the same thing...The function of news is to signalize an event. The function or truth is to bring to light hidden facts, to set them into relation with each other, and make a picture of reality upon which men can act."
This week in the Social Role of the Mass Media we talked about where truth belongs in news. The above quote from Lippmann was given to the class by Professor Bowen before the week started. It made me think of how and if truth and journalism exist together. I think every journalists, especially a journalism teacher, wants to think that truth and news go hand in hand, however, our realistic side probably tells us that it's not as crystal clear. News should absolutely have truth in it, but how much truth is actually in news? In our class discussion, we said that there should be a balance, but could not define what the balance should be. I searched for another word for balance, but couldn't find one. Someone suggested using the word thorough and that seemed to work well. There should always be a thorough investigation of truth, as well as thorough explanations in articles. If a reporter can say to they thoroughly researched the topic then the article should be balanced, which is the goal. It's not that I don't think journalists do this now; it's more so that I think that sometimes not all of the truth is told. In other words, journalists, news stations, twitter members, whomever is sharing news have a tendency to leave out part of the truth when relaying the news. So yes there is truth in news, but is it the whole truth and nothing but the truth? Not so sure. I hope to teach my students to always tell the whole truth and to always seek the whole truth.
I think telling student journalists to "tell the whole truth" can sound intimidating because they realize on some level that they have a limited understanding of the world. I think you're doing a great service to them if you mention the Lippmann quote-- "The function of truth is to bring to light hidden facts," AND say that's possible with solid research methods and a healthy skepticism. I tell my students to research a story as if they were on the debate team and had to come up with holes in the other side's arguments. If you keep looking for the holes in a story, you'll keep finding the hidden facts, and that will lead you to as complete a story, i.e. as truthful a story, as you can tell at that time.
ReplyDeletePerhaps "thorough" is the best word we can come up with. I use it with both journalism and English students to beat out the idea that a paragraph is at least three sentences someone in elementary school drilled into their heads. If only the things I try to drill into their heads would stay...
ReplyDeleteHopefully, a goal is complete stories, and that helps reach the truth concept.
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