Getting to the truth is harder in the era of post-truth. How do we tell fact from fabrication?
Image credit: iStock
Hoaxes, scams, tall tales and outright lies have been around since humans first learned to speak. But 2016 - and 2017 so far - have seen untruth rise to a whole new level. (You know it's really bad when Trump's new White House press secretary, at his first news conference, delivers "alternative facts" - ahem, falsehoods - to the media.)
With Oxford Dictionary naming "post-truth" as word of the year for 2016 and fact-checking sites registering "false" on countless politicians' claims, the average person might question whether accuracy and fact even matter anymore in our society. And, perhaps more importantly, how to sort out what's real and what's fabricated.
Thought Box asked a media expert, a psychologist and a journalist to offer their thoughts on truth and post-truth in a panel conversation: Tim Currie, '06 MA, director of University of King's College School of Journalism; Jason Harley, assistant professor in UAlberta's Department of Educational Psychology; and Paula Simons, '86 BA, Edmonton Journal columnist.
[Editor's Note: The opinions expressed in the panel discussion are those of the panelists and not of the University of Alberta]
Listen to the full discussion or skip to the highlights below:
- Fake news 101 [2:29]
- Reader responsibility vs. journalist responsibility [4:32]
- Newsrooms in the social media era [7:04]
- "You won't believe what happens next!" [9:10]
- Inside the social media bubble [13:42]
- Becoming media literate [17:28]
- Getting both sides of the story [23:11]
- The danger of neutrality in journalism [28:10]
- Transparency and citing news sources [33:35]
- The danger of calling fake news a "lie" [35:19]
- Fighting back: practical ways to combat fake news [39:48]
Recorded on January 5, 2017
Music credit: Hep Cats by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
Learn More
Trustworthy advice for a post-truth world
VIDEO: How to escape the internet echo chamber
Column: When Truth Doesn't Matter
Tech firms aim to filter fake news
Comments Policy
We at Thought Box welcome your comments. Robust debate and criticism are encouraged, provided it is respectful. We reserve the right to reject comments, images or links that attack ethnicity, nationality, religion, gender or sexual orientation; that include offensive language, threats, spam; are fraudulent or defamatory; infringe on copyright or trademarks; and those that just generally aren't very nice. Discussion is monitored and violation of these guidelines will result in comments being disabled.
We at New Trail welcome your comments. Robust debate and criticism are encouraged, provided it is respectful. We reserve the right to reject comments, images or links that attack ethnicity, nationality, religion, gender or sexual orientation; that include offensive language, threats, spam; are fraudulent or defamatory; infringe on copyright or trademarks; and that just generally aren’t very nice. Discussion is monitored and violation of these guidelines will result in comments being disabled.