"Respect for truth and the public's right to information are fundamental principles of journalism."
The world journalist's inhabit can at times be difficult to navigate in order to best tell the truth to their publics. Sharon Tickle notes in her contribution to Journalism: Theory in Practice (Tapsall & Varley, 2008) that the world is shaped by time pressures, market forces, law, work culture and practices, human frailty and journalist's experiences. Truth is a vital aspect of journalism that they must learn how to portray and the best methods of doing this appropriately.
"For information to make sense, the audience must have some faith that what it is presented with has some basis in reality."
(Tickle, 2008, p.91)
It is clear that what the truth is will differ due to the form, those who present the information, how it has been framed and packaged, even down to the way in which it is interpreted by the audience and the experience they bring. Truth at times can be a subjective thing, and because of this journalist's must be wary that what they report is accurate.
Tickle introduces the conflict between truth and the new media as an example of the difficulty of portraying truth and objectivity in media, and this is an interesting concept within new media. It has been noted that truth is potentially more difficult to portray in new media, or even that it has a less important role within this field. Those within new media have rejected these claims that they are unable to present the truth, yet cultural theorists have created the view that new media's attempts are futile due to the fact that truth is situational and subjective.
Is this a factor, will truth differ and potentially waver across different forms of media? And how is truth presented?
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