In today’s Sydney Morning Herald, Jonathan Holmes, presenter of Media Watch on ABC, shamelessly announces the media’s tendency towards stretches or sometimes outright disregards of the truth in his article ‘The media: love, fear, rage and jealousy…but light on reality’.

He admits that in a time of staff cut backs, where journalists are pressed to deliver a story now, and above all sell those stories, the responsibility of good old scrupulous investigation is being wearied.

I want to place emphasis on story as Jonathan Holmes did. Story represents a piece of writing or media which can provide information, thought and above all entertainment for the audience. This element of journalism was discussed in this week’s lecture, in which facts are used as part of a story. The story must have entertainment value but nonetheless be based upon some form of factual evidence. Factual evidence is also run in counter to other pieces of fact, and so builds a nice story involving controversy, polemic and drama. As journalists it is important to substantiate your facts through diligent research and a wide range of sources, which as stated above is sometimes overlooked when time is pressing.

So, I guess it is up to the audience to maintain a sense of personal integrity towards what the media claims to be true. It is not so much about being passive and soaking up their every word as if it stemmed from some overarching authority of truth and reality. It is more about reading from a wide range of sources; from scientific journals (when scientific fact is an element, such as climate change), to newspapers, to online blog sites and documentaries. For we live in a world hungry for information, where it is a only a matter of sourcing out the good from the bad.