mm392413@ohio.edu
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| Source: http://www.truthrevolt.org |
Tell the truth. Own up to your mistakes. Admit when you're wrong.
These are phrases everyone has heard time and time again. Lessons learned from experiences and sayings parents say to their kids to keep them out of trouble.
The same fundamental rules apply to journalism today. Journalists should tell the truth, own up to mistakes and admit when they are wrong.
Inevitably, that doesn't always happen.
The truth is arguably the most powerful force on the planet, and journalists hold a unique power over the truth. They have the obligation to inform the public on what is happening in the world and how it relates to their life. Journalists make decisions every day over what should matter to everyone else by creating the news. But, if you can't trust a journalist to be honest, who can you trust?
Pressure Creates Inaccuracy
The lack of the public's trust in journalism is not new. The pressure for journalists to gain readers to generate revenue dates back to the 1890s when yellow journalism was the norm. Sensationalism and stretching the truth was part of the job if it meant selling more papers. There is and always will be the pressure to give readers what they want - even if it isn't always accurate. While the pressure to be the first to break a story and the internet have certainly changed the game...the core journalistic principle of transparency and accuracy is more important now than ever before in this era of fake news and political strife.
My mother has always told me that she was proud that I wanted to be a journalist. She told me she believed that I could become a "real" reporter who did "real" journalism with digging, fact-checking and verifying. Not someone who just published or said something the very second information came out. She told me about the "good ol' days" where journalists actually cared about presenting facts without bias and a disregard for accuracy. But what she didn't consider is that now with the internet and smartphones news is constant. The 24/7 news cycle is on full force and there is no sign of it slowing down. People want their news how they want it, where they want it and the instant they want it. No one is patient enough to wait for the six o'clock news anymore. By then, there most likely will be an entirely new breaking news story to cover.
She does present an interesting argument, however. Would the public prefer to wait to learn information until everything can be properly sourced and verified? Or would they rather know what we know as soon as we know it, and update as we learn more? It seems to be a catch 22.
The Dilemma
If the reporter waits to publish, the story could be considered old news as other publications would have shared the information already. The impatient public may also feel cheated since they didn't know sooner. On the other hand, if the reporter publishes information with little to back it up and no sources willing to verify right away, then there is the risk of running something that isn't 100% true. The story may end up being retracted which may cause the public to lose it's trust in that reporter and/or the publication as a whole. So what is a journalist to do?
The Truth Can Change
It is important to consider that the truth changes. Is it really inaccurate/unethical for a reporter to publish a story if they earnestly believed the information was truthful? At the time of publication, it may have been. Something had to have changed in order for the story to later be considered false. Does intention matter?
This article by the DRC raises some interesting points and challenges journalists to consider some hard questions:
"Is getting the facts right the same as the truth?
Is being 'objective" the same as being truthful?
How about fairness?
Can we even agree on a common truth?"
Overall the only constant is change. It is up to journalists to decipher which truth matters most as time goes on and changes keeps occurring.
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