The Importance of Journalism and Factual Reporting
The world we live in is greatly influenced by what people read or hear. The words read and heard will be stored in our brains and impact our thoughts. These in turn impact our decisions, relationships and the ideas which we then write or speak about to others. Words do matter. They matter to our children, to spouses, siblings, extended family, neighbours, co-workers and to our fellow citizens of earth....those whom we have never met but who may read or hear our words.
Journalism is a field which pumps out its fair share of the written and spoken word. Journalism plays a fundamental role in the education of people and in ensuring that the truth always finds its voice. It is a force against those in society which try to silence the truth. It is important to decision making via its ability to educate us on current affairs and due to its investigative nature as well.
But what is truth anyways? Whatever it may be it generally is not right or wrong. It can please and bring joy. It can disappoint and bring great sadness. But in and of itself it is not right or wrong. Our interpretation of the truth decides where we place it on that spectrum. Our interpretation is, getting back to the first paragraph, influenced by what we have read or heard.
Taking into account that we all have been influenced differently (there literally are as many versions of the truth as there are people on Earth), nevertheless, there are certain truths that most human beings will agree upon. Murder is a truth and it is wrong. Compassion is a truth and it is right.
The volume of words which media outlets pump out lays an important burden on these institutions. They influence billions of people around Earth. Unfortunately today's media industry has evolved into one that focuses greatly on opinions and editorials rather than objective and investigative reporting. They are trying to influence readers to a specific conclusion. Certain news outlets (CNN and Fox being those that stand out most to me) are pretty much 100% editorial outlets. They are day long editorials with host after host spewing out their opinions on what has happened rather than just sticking to what has happened and letting the viewer decide for themselves whether they agree or not.
I believe that the news media business needs to give serious thought to how they are influencing the consumers of their work, how these people might react to what they read or view and then to the consequences on society. If people simply got the facts rather than constant opinion I would hazard a guess that the our planet would have less problems. It would be less polarized and less sensational. People, left to make up their own opinions, generally choose what is right for themselves and those around them. This snowballs into a better world.
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