John Whale in his "The Politics of the Media" said that 'Media' is an unattractive term. It is foreign in form and vague. A rocket-launched satellite can be a medium of mass communication, so can a brick wall. But, the term is convenient once defined. It is used as a short name for the news around the world, distributed through newspapers, radio, TV or Internet.
Truth has no alternative. It is the basis of the journalism. News is true or they’re not news at all. Journalism, as well as the communication itself, is based on truth. Louis D. Boccardi once said that good writing is a meter of practice, that story must be well written so that it could be normally read by the readers. But, to say more it’s a meter of profession. He said that the journalist should be proud of his job and for the commitment that he preformed to the readers.
For a journalist it’s very important the way the readers accepted his text or a certain TV shows. Mass communication is adjusted to public, who is very numerous, heterogeneous, and of course anonymous.
Boccardi said that public has a right to know and has the right to understand. That kind of communication between journalist and public is very important. Lie is a part of the media’s manipulation and that is something that a journalist should avoid. The most important reason for this avoiding is the same public’s trust. If the journalist decide to invent information, and the public finds out that it is a lie, it’s more likely that he automatically loses lots of readers, credibility itself. And of course that is not the aim of one journalist. It’s totally opposite. He should be able to attract more and more readers with his text. And the best way to do it is to tell the truth.
True/Untrue?
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2 comments:
Lex:
An interesting notion of news and of its relation to 'truth', but one that I do have considerable reservation about. From my perspective, 'truth', like news, is a social construction and not something similar to a mathematical proof. News reflects a perception by those observers, journalists in the case of media, who follow narrowly prescribed procedures to report events (subsequently termed news).
Whatever your own position on these matters, I wonder how notions of news and journalism relate - as you see it - to digital media and digital communications. I can imagine many relations, e.g., reconsideration of journalistic professional procedures, reorientation on the nature and substance of news. How do you see your elaboration on news and truth related to the digital environment?
Mr. Jankowski:
I do think that everyone should rely his or her info on "truth", no matter through what media.
There is a question though, when it comes to "new media", what "truth" really is. As we know, Internet as a mass medium it's not being supervised by anyone. Everyone can type down on it whatever that crosses it's mind. Do I see it as a good or a bad thing? Probably mish mash of both.
Of course, I would prefer that journalists or on-line writers write pieces that really rely on truth. But, what precisely we can do if they don't write true information? Basically nothing.
In on-line issues of newspapers around the world it’s basically the same content as in the paper version. So, if a reader accepts the info as “truth” it would be accepted as that probably in all of the versions as well. Either it comes from Internet or others media.
News throughout the world are all the same (exclude tabloids). Journalists report basically the same things. It’s up to person who reads them to decide is it truth or not.
I do believe that it all comes from the reader itself. And the journalist of course, his/her ethics and personality I suppose. But, the main line here is the reader’s line.
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