Is Todays News What It Should Be?

Is today’s news a truthful account of the day’s events? Is it a blatant attempt to guide the reader’s reaction to keep interests high? Or do entertainment corporations trying to make a profit overrun today’s news? Should there be certain standards of journalism in news today?

To answer these questions, the reader must understand the definition of news. Jack Fuller best defines news as “a report of what a news organization has recently learned about matters of some significance or interest to the specific community that news organization serves.” Journalism in today’s news is not the same as it was over half a century ago. The reader can see this in Jim Squires’ statement that journalism “even at its worst and most unfair… once had as its goal a quest for accuracy and perspective that would eventually provide truth.” Whereas news, itself, is best defined best defined by the Hutchinson Commission on freedom of the pres in 1947 as a “truthful, comprehensive, and intelligent account of the day’s events in a context which gives them meaning.” So what has happened to journalism today?

Journalism no longer seeks accuracy and fairness. There are many fallacies in the basis of today’s journalism. Journalism today has the tendency to try and persuade the reader’s reaction. It has become biased in this same sense. Journalism concentrates more on the negatives than the positives. It lacks the background information needed to better educate the reader making an opinion. The entertainment industry has taken over control of some publications in order to influence readers and turn a profit. The reader’s opinion becomes swayed by the impact of these tendencies, as well as the writer’s own opinion of the situation stated in his/her report.

One example of the fallacies in today’s news is the lack of background information given on the subject. Very little background information is recorded, which in turn does not inform the reader enough to make an educated opinion. For example, if a journalist writes an article on how the pollution of Houston, Texas is worse today than it was twenty years ago, and fails to give details of how pollution was twenty years ago, how can the reader actually know that the pollution is worse today? Another case in point would be a journalist informing an audi...

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...lden Rule’s motto is treat people the same way you would want to be treated. Jack Fuller best exemplifies The Golden Rule by suggesting “that the reporter must try to put the case against his conclusions as forcefully as he would want an opponent to put the reporter’s own arguments.” The reporter must put his opinions aside and express other point of views with the same enthusiasm. The Golden Rule leads to another example of how news needs to be.

Accuracy and fairness in news is a must. By accuracy and fairness, the reader can conclude that no reporter will falsify facts in an article in order to lead the reader to one opinion or another. Jack Fuller shows how news might be inaccurate and unfair in his example of a report over a public debate. Fuller states that the journalist might “call all close factual issues for the weaker party or shade the way he put both sides’ arguments in order to give the weaker side a chance of persuading the audience.” The reader should be allowed to form his/her own opinion based on accurate and truthful accounts of the day’s events. These guidelines will help journalism return to its accurate and fair form of the past.