Review of What Is News?

Review of What is News?

This essay aims to make readers reflect "What is news?"and think more about the proper way to read news through analyzing several specific examples. To this extent, it works, indeed. After reading through the essay, some ideas about "what is the truth" raised in my head.

As Mr. Postman said, he or she is in danger of too easily accepting someone else's definition of news. In similar fashion, we possibly put ourselves in a risky situation when we acknowledge so called truth from others without further judgement. Because we cannot deny that

the story-making ability of ordinary people is not inferior to journalists'. The difference merely lies in whether the vocabulary used is advanced or not. Some people used to retell the issue with simple and direct word but tend to use an exaggerated tone to make the issues more appealing. We cannot judge correctly under such influence. In other words, we should hold a critical attitude toward the truth from others. Always keep doubt before we get supports or evidences our own.

But there is another problem. Does the saying "Seeing is believing." always work? We doubt it. As Mr. Postman said, "Each of our senses is a remarkably astute censor. We see what we expect to see; often, we focus on what we're paid to see." It means that what we see might be just selected parts of whole issue out of our interests or expectations. This kind of partiality might lead us to the trap of hasty generalization.

It reminds me of the theory---fallacy of composition in economy field. The fallacy arises when one infers that something is true of the whole from the fact that it is true of some part of the whole. To put it another way, what we saw might be only partial fact of the issue, and what we learned from it is merely a reference not eternal truth to other similar issues. Therefore, when you prepare to tell a truth, make yourself clear firstly which perspective you want to choose and what kind of result you want to achieve. Then there comes the truth.

Obviously, it is hard to define the truth. And I firmly hold the view that there is no absolutely restored truth could be found without great effort. It is only with the heart that one can see rightly what is essential is invisible to the eyes.