Is Truth at a Decline Within Journalism?

Kiah Easton 

Kiaheaston1999@gmail.com

 

With the speed at which humans communicate has steadily increased within the last 20 years, accessible information is at an all-time high. Within minutes people can be aware of events happening across the world in a variety of forms and from a variety of sources. 

When reading the headline of this blog post many may jump to the idea of "fake news" and mention its prevalence in today's information ecosystem. Surely, fake news or false information spreads quickly, are popular, and jeopardizes the value of truth. However, with increased media literacy audiences will be able to avoid false information and reap the rewards of increased access to a vast array of truthful information and journalism.

To answer the question: no, truth is not at a decline. It is transforming in the many ways it is delivered. Because information is so accessible, journalists can no longer just tell the facts or report only "what happened." Journalist's function has shifted in many facets to deciphering the massive amount of 'accessible' Truth -- condensing, streamlining, and displaying varied perspectives of 'the truth', while remaining transparent. 

Although many consider the increase of opinion journalism a reason for the perceived increase in false information, as long as transparency is held high, opinion-based journalism is just as valuable if not more so in today's atmosphere. As noted in the Digital Resource Center, when consumers of media have a question, they can come to the conclusion through researching the facts on their own, often easily accessible through the internet. However, even after coming to their own conclusion, being able to read a journalist's published, thoroughly researched opinion can help to inform and develop other's own opinions. As stated before, the journalist's function today leans more towards the interpretation of an overflow of information than just purely restating the facts.

Picture source: Stony Brook Center For News Literacy

Beyond just analyzing the increase in opinion-based journalism that has been spread within fact-based journalism, it is important to acknowledge the fact that no matter how fact-based information it may be, it is still told through a specific lens, with specific framing, and focuses on specific elements, all of which affect the way the information is perceived. 

There is practically no unbiased news when considering all of the aforementioned elements. But does that mean journalism is becoming increasingly dishonest? No, as poetically put in reason, "Bias isn't tantamount to dishonesty. It just speaks to purpose." 

If the pervasive and for the most part false assumption that most journalism is or needs to be unbiased decreases within our discourse, consumers can become more aware that, what they are consuming is biased and how they can use journalism written from a transparent bias to further inform their opinion.

Rather than spreading the narrative that journalism has become untrue and untrustworthy, journalists need to own up to their ever-present bias and continue writing from their unique, informed, helpful, and TRUE perspectives.