Paranoia
"we stand at risk of being actively mislead by misunderstanding. We can come to know or believe some "information" about ourselves or our world that directly contradicts the real state of affairs" pg. 3, IANS
I never considered this. We take the news for granted, assuming what is printed is the truth. It is a journalist's job to be a "guardian of the truth". We are told information by people we assume are reliable sources, but we can never be too sure. There is only one way of knowing if a person is really telling the truth: let's face it, your interviewee will probably not be very willing to talk to you if they are hooked up to a polygraph machine. We use our judgement: what facts and statements should we include in our article? Our readers will never know all of what was said during the interview: it is our job to decide what is significant enough to be published. We are all different people, and thus has different judgement standards. Therefore, the news can never be totally subjective.
Not that I'm now paranoid......
I never considered this. We take the news for granted, assuming what is printed is the truth. It is a journalist's job to be a "guardian of the truth". We are told information by people we assume are reliable sources, but we can never be too sure. There is only one way of knowing if a person is really telling the truth: let's face it, your interviewee will probably not be very willing to talk to you if they are hooked up to a polygraph machine. We use our judgement: what facts and statements should we include in our article? Our readers will never know all of what was said during the interview: it is our job to decide what is significant enough to be published. We are all different people, and thus has different judgement standards. Therefore, the news can never be totally subjective.
Not that I'm now paranoid......
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» You Can't handle the truth. from MitchellSteele
So I was reading over some blogs before class, and I was stunned by the fact that the majority of my class was shocked at the idea that the news(papers/tv-whatever, where ever you get the news from)might be slanted, and... Read More
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Corey Struss on Paranoia: The guardian of truth. I like
Mitchell Steele on Paranoia: There is one part of the paper
Maria on Paranoia: I totally felt the same way ab
Bethany Merryman on Paranoia: I know this was seriously a sc
Jeremy Barrick on Paranoia: Has it come to the point where
Nessa on Paranoia: What? We can't hook our inter
Mitchell Steele on Paranoia: There is one part of the paper
Maria on Paranoia: I totally felt the same way ab
Bethany Merryman on Paranoia: I know this was seriously a sc
Jeremy Barrick on Paranoia: Has it come to the point where
Nessa on Paranoia: What? We can't hook our inter
What? We can't hook our interviewees up to polygraph machines? Darn...there goes my fullproof interviewing stategy...
I can understand having a bit of paranoia though. If you can't believe what you read, and you can't believe what you're told, what can you believe? This is why most people take the news at face value- it's easier than trying to think about how everything we're told is wrong.
Has it come to the point where we need to be our own gatekeepers? We are not told the truth, so we believe, we take matters into our own hands. Let's face it, the world is full of liars. I do not ever think we will know the truth. Isn't that what Socrates set out for? We search for an answer that we will never believe. Let the truth set you free.
I know this was seriously a scary thought. News is not a first hand experience, but a form of the telephone game. So how much of the news can we really believe, and with that how much of the news is actually objective. Aren't other people's perspectives biased?
PS: I still am unsure if I am using a bias and biased properly, so sorry if this is the wrong way, I will look it up immediately.
I totally felt the same way about the whole trust issue. How do we really know that everything we read is true? Its a tad bit scary, because we could end up reading something that would be totally bad and fake, but if we belived it we could act harshly. I hope nothing like real bad ever happens, that wouldn't be good!
There is one part of the paper that does not lie and can be read with no fear-box scores on the sports page. No opinions, no bias, just facts. The rest of the paper depends really depends on the writer-the Trib is a very conservative paper,where the Post-Gazette is a lot more liberal-look at the same stories in both papers and you'll see the slant one way or the other, but look at the box scores in both papers, and they are without a dobt equally the same.
The guardian of truth. I like that. That makes me want to be a journalist, just so I could strut around with that title.
But really. They are the only ones who know what happened at a situation, whether it be a parade, a murder, an interview, etc. They are the mediator between the news and the people. They have to deliver with accuracy and integrity, else they won't be around for too long.