Verification

Verification in Journalism

(attempting to tell the truth)

Ever feel like you’re always wrong? Like no matter what you say someone somewhere can and probably will refute it. Well you’re not alone, we are ALL always wrong, at least a little bit. Then how, might you ask, does a journalist tell the truth? The answer has to do with the term verification, and how verification is giving basically accurate information versus the full truth.

Basically accurate information still requires a lot of time and effort to acquire. There are rules that any honest journalist should and does follow. Adding things to a story that weren’t really there is one way to give false verification. Sure a fancier story could attract more readers, or help your story reach the headlines but as soon as you’re caught, your credibility is gone. Along with the fact that you’ll probably get fired. So let’s make it easy on everyone and keep to the story at hand.

Verification also deals with the idea of deception. As the book The Elements of Journalism states, “[deception] mocks the idea that journalism is committed to truth.” Deception can occur in a story in many ways; first could be in the finding of information. It’s important to find information from every angle of the situation, not just according to your opinion. Second, journalists should never advocate something; they’re not advertisers, business men, or street dealers. Journalists are hard at work to provide a story that is as unbiased as possible, no advocating. And third, as journalists for newspaper articles often times there are parts of the story that must be cut in order to fit it to the page they’re designated. However, it’s important not to cut information that is significant to the story; this is another way to deceive the reader.

It is essential for a journalist to use their own notes. “Heard it Through the Grapevine” may be a great song, but it’s not a great way to write articles.  A person that writes a story by merely hearing about it through someone else better be writing it for a gossip column because that’s all it is, gossip. Journalist should double check all their sources if they’re getting information from other people. Taking verification into mind will make any journalist that much more credible, loyal, and all around better.