so275713@ohio.edu
Where do we go and who do we trust if we can't trust the news? With each day the left and the right side politically becoming more polarized and seemingly more and more news stations picking a side, the truth and we as people are taking a major hit. This is a significant problem and one that is causing many to ask why this is happening and to demand for the truth to be brought back in our to day-to-day lives.
The Importance of Bringing Truth Back
The birth of what soon became know as Pizzagate began on a seemingly harmless Sunday when a male entered Comet, a Washington D.C. Ping-Pong bar and pizzeria and opened fire on those inside. Though everyone was lucky enough to escape unharmed, this situation could have ended quite differently.
The 28-year-old man traveled all the way from North Carolina after hearing a conspiracy that presidential candidate Hillary Clinton was running a child-trafficking brigade out of said pizza shop.
This conspiracy was, of course, just one of the many fake news stories that have come out pre and post election season.
A general consensus from critics is that the fake news stories are so outlandish that no person in their right mind would believe them. Unfortunately it takes an incident like the infamous pizzagate to change these people's minds, which sadly is often too late.
How to Bring the Truth Back
This question has been something news stations have been trying to tackle since the invention of fake news. The one general consensus that has come out of seemingly all newsrooms is to be more transparent in our coverage of the news.
If you are not familiar with the meaning of transparency in the media I believe that NPR's ethics handbook put its best:
"To inspire confidence in our journalism, it is critical that we give the public the tools to evaluate our work. We reveal as much as we practically can about how we discover and verify the facts we present. We strive to make our decision-making process clear to the public, especially when we find ourselves wrestling with tough choices. We disclose any relationships, whether with partners or funders, that might appear to influence our coverage."
The reason this definition is so great is because in a changing world of blatant bias in media coverage and fake news, viewer, subscribers and all readers are left to question if a specific or any news outlet is safe to trust. However, by being completely open about fact checking, sources and the decision-making process slowly not only the truth but also trust in media, slowly begins to resurface.
A Better Tomorrow
It is certain that nothing is going to happen over night but we can begin the journey to the right path.
As journalist we need to work everyday on bringing transparency to our readers, to set our political agendas and opinions aside as present the mere, unedited truth. The stronger and more solid the facts and research of the facts that we attain are, the harder it is for anyone to poke holes in it, to claim falsity or bias.
As readers and viewers of the news, research stories you read or see. View stories and opinions from someone else's eyes. If you see media that doesn't match up with the truth, call news organizations out, make them better at presenting information the way it needs to be presented: objectively.
We can't turn our back on the news. There are still high quality journalists still out there who, like you, just want the truth.
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