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The fact and fiction of journalism today

Journalism has always been a personal view on what is happening around the person writing the news of the day. Trying to keep an emotional gloss out of the news is not an option for a journalist. Reporters on the other hand report factually what is being said or done in a specific situation, without any personal viewpoint or opinion. Unfortunately, this difference is not always appreciated.

At one time people would be at the event in question and give either a purely factual report, or very personal opinion, on what had been happening. But with the use of technology this type of on-the-street reporting/journalism is disappearing and with it the ability to give a true non-fictional account of events.

When Reuters first began sending information across the world via telegraph, then telephone, and now the internet, people learned what was happening elsewhere very quickly, certainly quicker than waiting for a letter via an ocean liner. But today, the internet especially is instantaneous, and many reports are already written out so, unfortunately, some lazy journalists and reporters just plagiarize someone else's report rather than checking for accuracy themselves. This is all the more important as it is possible for someone to put up a website and give false information within it which is then classed as accurate factual news and forwarded on to all the other media outlets, so informing a large percentage of the world's reading public. Lies become truths and soon we can't tell truth from fiction.

It is also becoming a fashionable way for the media to get the news because it saves many people a lot of physical effort and a natural laziness present in all human beings, if they allow themselves to be so, becomes "the norm" and soon we accept fiction as fact!

It is time for journalists to go back to the streets and see for themselves what is happening. The reading public wants truth not lies, and the only way the journalistic profession will regain its credibility is to do just that.

Learn more about this author, Carol Noble.
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