Truth Be Told

Sydney Van Ness

sv221913@ohio.edu

journalismtheoryandpractice.tumblr.com

A companies brand is worth a thousand words. It can make or break a company, and once a brand is tarnished, it can ruin any credibility a company has.

Take BuzzFeed, for example. BuzzFeed has, whether intentionally or not, previously branded itself as a company that provides readers with a source of entertainment and a fun break from reality through its fluff writing.

The problem BuzzFeed now faces is that since it is known for non-serious articles, viral videos, and quizzes, their efforts to rebrand themselves as a credible news source has become challenging. 

Even though they are making progress, BuzzFeed is not alone in this war of credibility. 

Old Fashion vs New Fashion

The last few decades, the birth of digital journalism has brought along with it a war between generations of journalists trying to decide if they want to stick to the old-fashion way of journalism that prides itself on truth and accuracy, or join the trends that newer news sites follow by publishing articles that may or may not be all the way accurate, just for the sake of being the first one to break the story.

Meeting in the Middle

Since generation of readers have high expectations when it comes to how immediately available news is at our fingertips, companies are turning to a hybrid form of journalism. The middle ground, as mentioned in the article Who Cares if it's True?, is to have a degree of perfectionism that is good for business, but not so perfect that it prevents the creative process of journalism for happening at all, and completely limits what a journalist can post.

Social Media Overload

With the seemingly endless social media sites available to us today, journalists also face the problem of keeping up with all of them in a fast and accurate way. Twitter has become a fast place to find sources, but the question that comes along is how accurate the information is. Since this information can often be inaccurate since it comes from third party sources, being transparent, especially on social media, is vital to keeping your brand credible.