Its a philosophical research on truth

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THEORIES OF TRUTH AND ITS APPLICATION IN MEDIA
PRACTICE
FELIX PETER VOGAREMPI,
E-mail: meetvogarempi@yahoo.com
INTRODUCTION: DIFFICULTIES IN EXPLAINING TRUTH
People often think and make assertions, some of which are true and others
false. When a statement is asserted as being true, what is there about that
statement that makes it true? The meaning of truth extends from honesty, good
faith, and sincerity in general to agreement with fact or reality in particular.1 The
term has no single definition which is agreed upon by a majority of professional
philosophers and scholars. Instead, there exist various theories of truth each
claiming to be most suitable. The issues involved in truth go to include whether truth
is subjective, relative, objective, or absolute. Truth seems to designate a property,
for example in the statement ‘what she wore was magenta,’ ‘magenta’ designates’ a
property…2; why shouldn’t ‘truth’ in what is said or thought be true. G. E Moore
succumbed to this kind of temptation: he admitted that he once held the view on
grounds, presumably, like those which led him to the corresponding view about
goodness that the truth is a simple un-analyzable property.3
We may also ask whether truth is a substance, a quality or even property of
propositions. However, how do we mean when we say something is true or false.
This problem has preoccupied philosophers from ancient to contemporary period.
For better understanding of this notion let us first delve into its etymological
meaning.
ETYMOLOGY OF TRUTH
The word ‘truth’ etymologically comes from Greek word alethes, aletheia (αληθεια)
which means truthfulness, frankness, sincerity’. There is also a verb, ‘alétheuein’,
which mean to speak truly, etc. These words are related to ‘lanthanein’, with an
older form ‘léthein’, meaning ‘to escape notice, be unseen, unnoticed, and ‘lithe’,
which means ‘forgetting, forgetfulness4’. An initial ‘a’- in Greek is often privative, like
the Latin ‘in’- or the Germanic ‘un’. The words Alethés and alétheia are generally
accepted to be ‘a-léthes’, ‘a-létheia’, which imply that which is ‘not hidden or
1 Truth, Mirriam- Webster Dictionary, 2005
2 G, Pitcher, Readings in the Philosophy of Language, Edited by joy f. Rosenberg and Charles Travis
Prentice- Hall, inc. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey 1971, p 223
3 G, pitcher, Readings in the Philosophy of Language, p223
4 M, Inwoord, A Heidegger Dictionary- Oxford, Blakwe; Pub, 1999, p14

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forgotten’- or he who ‘does not hide or forget’.5 We reach the ‘essence of truth’, the
‘openness of the open’, from two directions: from ‘reflection on the ground of the
possibility of correctness (adaequatio)’ and from ‘recollection of the beginning
(alétheia).6 According to Heidegger ‘alétheuein’ is ‘to take out of hiddinness
‘Verborgenheit’ to uncover ‘entdecken’; alétheia is ‘uncovering’; and aléthes is
‘unhidden Unverborgen (es).7 The foregoing terminological analyses have the
following implications.
i. Truth is not confined to explicit assertions and discrete mental and primarily
theoretical attitudes such as judgments, beliefs and representations. The
world as a whole, not just entities within it, is unhidden - unhidden as much
by moods as by understanding.
ii. Truth is primarily a feature of reality - beings, being and world - not of
thoughts and utterances. Beings are of course, unhidden to us and we
disclose them. Heidegger later coins entbergen; Entbergung; Entborgenheit,
‘to unconceal; -ing; -ment’, since unlike unverborgen, they can have an active
sense: aléthes means: unconcealed [entborgen), said of beings.8 The
unhiddeness of being or reality.
However, the Etymological meaning of the term ‘truth’ cannot exhaust the meaning
of truth in so far as a language itself grows and words take on new meaning
historically within time and space.
TYPES OF TRUTH
In the philosophical discourse, there seems to be two types of truth, namely Truth of
Reason and Truth of fact. Hume and Leibniz made distinctions between “Truth of
reason and truth of fact-’ For Hume, the two types are called matters of fact and
knowledge of the relations of ideas. But Leibniz prefers to call them as Ventes de fait
et ventes de raison9. The Truth of reason is basically identified by the power of
rational thinking. It is purely based on logic, which is the science of good thinking.
Truths of reason are tautologies, because in such propositions the predicate simply
repeats what is already contained in the subject. Truth is therefore, tested by the
law of contradiction. Truth of reason tells us of what would be true in all situations
such that 2+2 will always be equal to 4, and science generally tends towards truth
of reason since they tend to experimentally verify everything with reason through
5 M, Inwoord, A Heidegger Dictionary, p13
6 M, Inwoord, A Heidegger Dictionary, p14
7 M, Inwoord, A Heidegger Dictionary, p14
8 M, Inwoord, A Heidegger Dictionary, p14
9 F, Heinemann. Philosophy of knowledge, p218

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the law of contradiction. Truth of facts, on the other hand, is basically identified by
the power of empirical knowledge. It is purely based on, and identified through
experience, which is an expansion of Aristotle’s view by Leibniz and is tested by the
law of sufficient reason. They are not necessary propositions but contingent truths
because their opposites could be possible without any risk of contradiction. As the
taste of a truth of reason is the law of contradiction so also the taste of the truth of
fact is the law of sufficient reason10. Further analysis of truth could provide some
other kinds of truth such as: Epistemological, Practical, Ideal, Religious and scientific
truths.
THEORIES OF TRUTH
COHERENCE THEORY OF TRUTH
This is the idealist approach; Truth in this respect is defined in relation to thought,
not to reality. For the adherents of this school of thought it is the coherence of
propositions with one another that constitutes truth and not correspondence of
propositions with facts, because we cannot directly compare our judgment with the
extra mental cosmic reality as it is. The adherents of this theory claim that a set of
beliefs is true if the beliefs are comprehensive-that is, they do not contradict each
other. Coherence theories are valuable because they help to reveal how we arrive at
our truth claim and knowledge. Hence, truth consists in the harmony of all our
judgments or propositions accepted as true within a particular system. For example,
within the mathematical system, the proposition 2+2=4 is true because it coheres
with other accepted axioms of mathematical calculations. The coherence theory of
truth, thus states that a proposition is true if it fits with all the rest of what we
already know to be true. Such fitness or coherence is usually analyzed in terms of
logical deductibility, or at least consistency. The coherence theory of truth is thus
congenial to rationalists, as the correspondence conception of truth is to empiricists.
To verify a proposition we must turn to the body of established knowledge, and if
this must be supplemented by additional data, we should ensure that the new
findings are not brought forward at what has already been confirmed. We
continually work at fitting our beliefs together into a coherent system. The major
coherence theories view coherence as requiring at least logical consistency.
10 S, E Stumpf, Philosophy: History and Problems 4th Edition McGraw-Hill Books Company, 1994 p259

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Rationalist metaphysicians would claim that a proposition is true if and only if
it is consistent with all other true propositions. Some rationalist metaphysicians go a
step beyond logical consistency and claim that a proposition is true if and only if it
entails (or logically implies) all other true propositions. Leibniz, Spinoza, Hegel,
Bradley, Blanchard, Neurath, Hempel (late in his life), Dummett, and Putnam have
advocated Coherence for theory of truth.
PRAGMATIST THEORY OF TRUTH
One can then understand what pragmatism means by flashing back to the history
and the foundation of the idea. It is a term which seems to have come from the
Greek word ηρααηα meaning action gave birth to the word ‘practice’ or practical. At
the beginning of the introduction of this word in philosophy and in an article Peirce
maintains that:
To develop a thought meaning we need only determine what conduct
it is fitted to produce. That conduct is for us its sole significance, and
the tangible fact at that root of all our thought-distinctions however
subtle, is that’ there is no one of them. So fine as to consist in
anything but a possible difference of practice.11
Pragmatism came to its fruition in the early twentieth-century philosophies of
William James and John Dewey and, in a more unorthodox manner, in the works of
George Santayana. Pragmatists consider practical consequences or real effects to be
vital components of both meaning and truth. Although there are wide differences in
viewpoints among proponents of the pragmatic theory, they hold in common that
truth is verified and confirmed by the results of putting one’s concepts into
practice.12 Peirce defines truth as follows:
Truth is that concordance of an abstract statement with the ideal limit
towards which endless investigation would tend to bring scientific
belief, which concordance the abstract statement may possess by
virtue of the confession of its inaccuracy and one-sidedness, and this
confession is an essential ingredient of truth.13
This statement emphasizes Peirce’s view that ideas of approximation,
incompleteness, and partiality and what he describes elsewhere as fallibilism and
11 W. James, Pragmatism and the Four Essay, from the Meaning of Truth, Meridian Books the World
Publishing Company, Cleveland and New York 1909 p23
12 P, Edward, Encyclopaedia of Philosophy vol. 5 Macmillan 1969, p427
13 C.S. Peirce, Truth and Falsity and Error in Part, J.M. Baldwin (ed.), Dictionary of Philosophy and
Psychology Vol. 2 Represented 1901 p 565

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“reference to the future”, are essential to a proper conception of truth. Although
Peirce uses words like concordance and correspondence to describe one aspect of
the pragmatic sign- relation, he is also quite explicit in saying that definitions of truth
based on mere correspondence are no more than nominal definitions. William
James’s version of pragmatic theory is often summarized by his statement that “the
‘true’ is only the expedient in our way of thinking, just as the ‘right’ is only the
expedient in our way of behaving.”14 By this, James meant that truth is a quality the
value of which is confirmed by its effectiveness when applying concepts to actual
practice.
CORRESPONDENCE THEORY OF TRUTH
Correspondence theory of truth state that true beliefs and true statements
correspond to the actual state of affairs.15 This type of theory posits a relationship
between thoughts or statements on the one hand, and things or objects on the
other. It is a traditional model which goes back at lease to some of the classical
philosophers such as Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle.16 This class of theories holds that
the truth or falsity of a representation is determined in principle solely by how it
relates to “things”, by whether it accurately describes those things. An example of
correspondence theory is the statement by the thirteenth century
philosopher/theologian Thomas Aquinas: veritas est adequation rei et intellectus
(truth is the adequation of things and intellect).17 Aquinas also restated theory as:
judgment is said to be true when it conforms to the external reality. Correspondence
theory practically operate on the assumption that truth is a matter of accurately
copying what was much later called “objective reality” and then representing in
thoughts, words and other symbols.18 The proponents of the correspondence theory
of truth affirm that a proposition is true because it corresponds to a fact, for
instance, the proposition that sugar is sweet is true when it is tested and found to
be sweet.
We may ask: what is a fact? The word “fact” can be used under two nuances: firstly,
the word “fact” is sometimes used to mean the same as “true proposition”. Thus I
can say “it is a fact that I travelled to Taraba during the long vacation”-that is, the
14 W. James, The Meaning of Truth, Sequel to Pragmatism, 1909
15 A. N. Prior, Correspondence Theory of Truth, Encyclopaedia of Philosophy Vol. Macmillan, 1969, p223
16 A. N. Prior, Correspondence Theory of Truth, Encyclopaedia of Philosophy Vol. Macmillan, 1969, p224
17 T. Aquinas, De Veritate, Q 1, A. 1 & 3; cf Summa Theologiae Q 16
18 F.H, Bradley, on Truth and Copying, in Blackburn, et al (Eds), 1999, p23

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sentence ‘I travelled to Taraba during the long vacation’ expresses a true
proposition. Simply stated it implies that “a proposition is true if it corresponds with
a true fact. According to Ewing, the word “correspondence suggests that, when we
make a true judgment, we have a sort of picture of the real in our minds and that
our judgments is true because this picture is like the reality it represents. However,
our judgments are not like the physical things to which they refer. The images we
use in judging may indeed in certain respects copy or resemble physical things, but
we can make a judgment without using any imagery except words and words are
not in the least similar to the things which they represent. We must not therefore,
understand “correspondence” as meaning copying or even resemblance.
In summary, correspondence theory holds that truth is established when there is
agreement between the intellect and the object. Correspondence theory of truth is a
position held by the realists and it is the most popular among all other theories of
truth. It has many adherents especially among contemporary philosophers viz; B.
Russell, C.D. Broad, G.E. Moore, J. Owens and A.E. Wing etc.
THE INFLUENCE OF THE THEORIES OF TRUTH ON THE MEDIA PRACTICE
It seems relevant to examine briefly the question or operation of the media [in brief
‘Media Practice’] before discussing how theories of truth exerts some influence on
such practice. Most media houses give the impression of communicating the truth to
their audiences who constitute the ‘public sphere’. The understanding of “public” has
been articulated by Denis Mcquail thus:
Unlike the Group and Crowd the Public connotes a quite, widely
dispersed and enduring collectivity, which tends to form around
issues of public life. As an essential element in the institution of
democratic politics, the primary purpose of a public is to advance an
interest or opinion and achieve political change through the
bourgeois, the political party or the news Media.19
The public maintains the public spheres and the public forum. This positive notion of
public is in accord with our positive notion of say, a TV audience or newspaper
readership. For the public sphere, the media plays a significant role in its life.
Interest in this section is the inquiring into the extent that the media systems can
contribute to the welfare of the public sphere. To this enquiry it is to be noted first
that the media does affect us i.e. to the welfare of society in many ways: as a major
socializing influence, a carrier of culture, a source of information, education and
19 D. Macquail Mass Communication Theory: An Introduction, Sage Publications; London, 1993, p 30

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entertainment, an important factor in political communication and participatory
democracy, and a dissemination of ideological values and norms, attitudes and
beliefs. The media also represents and constructs conceptions of what constitutes a
successful and valued life, along with what are considered to be deficient, deviant,
marginalized or undesirable behaviours.
In all these ways, the Media exert an influence on identity formation and associated
issues that have to do with social relations, economic and political positions. For
instance, the way in which socioeconomic status is framed in the entertainment
programs and News bulletins significantly, influences how the audience feels about
social equity, corruption, unemployment, to mention but few examples. As the
media analyst Diana Kendall argues: “myths and negative perceptions about the
working class and the poor creates a reality that seemingly justifies the superior
positions of the upper-middle and upper classes and establishes them as entitled to
their privileged position in the stratification system”.20 Here are the major roles of
media in the society.
i. The Provision of Public Information: The media provide information to the
public through the following means (1) the collection and presentation of
information concerning events in one’s environment, (the news reporting
function); (2) the selection for special comment, evaluation and interpretation
of the news and, in some instances, the prescribing of attitudes and action
(the editorial function); (3) the distribution of this selected and interpreted
information. Concretely, these functions are conducted in greater or lesser
measure by the newspapers, weekly news magazines, newsreels of the
movies, as well as by radio and TV newscasters and commentators.21 The
mass media, however, are of great importance in providing the citizenry with
a flow and vast range of knowledge regarding the world they live in; in
furnishing to the people collectively the materials for the formation of public
opinion and in enabling institutional organizations of all categories, but
especially governments to conduct their affairs.
20 D. Kendal, Framing Class: Media Representations of Wealth and Poverty in America Rowman and
Littlefield: Lanham 2005 p2-3
21 D, Donald, A Sociology of Language Joyce O. Hertzler, (edt) Pub by Random House, New York 1965
p 473

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ii. Provision of Publicity for Norm Violation: Because of their informational
function, the mass media plays a key role in conducting the publicity function,
which, in turn, is central in the enforcement of social norms. The mass media
displays the service of expressing or making public the social conditions,
persons and groups whose actions are at variance with the values and norms
of the society. Such are part of the services rendered by these media
channels like the newspapers, journals, radio and TV. The impact of such
information taking to an extreme may sometimes lead to the organization of a
crusade.
iii. Assisting Industry and Commerce: This consists mainly of the advertising
function—that is, the industry concerned buying a period of “air time” in radio
or TV broadcasting to advertise its goods. It may mean also buy some space
in the case of print media. The importance of this function is demonstrated by
the way the public no longer patronizes a certain product that no longer
receives adequate advertisement from the media due to strike or when the
media channel involved in advertisement is shut down.
iv. Providing Entertainment, Amusement and Recreation: This function is to
create relaxation, laughter and respite from duties. It aims at providing
enjoyment and enabling people to forget their worries, to fill idle time and to
offer an escape from boredom. The comics, novels and plays, operas,
concerts, “Westerns,” sportscasts, and so on, presented by means of motion
pictures, radio and TV, fulfill this function. Doubtless this function of media
occupies more of the time and attention of a great proportion of the media
audience than any of the others.22
MEDIA PRACTICES
Media, as is evident from the name, are means of communication, the aim of which
is to communicate values. The means of these communications are what have come
to be known as the ‘media practices’. Basically there are two main media practices
that are used in reaching out to the masses. These are broadcasting and
advertisement; any other thing that is done in media in fact forms part of these two
major practices.
22 D, Donald, A Sociology of Language p 488

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i. Broadcasting is a primary means by which information and entertainment are
delivered to the public in virtually every nation around the world. The term
broadcasting refers to the airborne transmission of electromagnetic audio
signals (radio) or audiovisual signals (television) that are accessible to a wide
population via standard, readily available receivers. The term has its origins in
the medieval agricultural practice of “broadcasting,” which refers to planting
seeds by scattering them across a field.23 Broadcasting is a crucial instrument
of modern social and political organization. At its peak of influence in the mid-
20th century, radio and television broadcasting were employed by political
leaders to address entire nations. Because of the radio and television’s
capacity to reach and influence large numbers of people and owing to the
limited spectrum of frequencies available, governments have commonly
regulated broadcasting wherever it has been practiced. In the early 1980s,
new technologies such as cable television and videocassette players—began
eroding the dominance of broadcasting in mass communication, splitting
audiences into smaller, culturally distinct segments24. Though broadcasting
was previously the only means of delivering radio and television to home
receivers, it is now one of the several delivery systems available to listeners
and viewers. Sometimes broadcasting is used in a broader sense to include
delivery methods such as wire-borne (cable) transmission. However, these
are more accurately called “narrowcasting” because they are generally limited
to paying subscribers.25
ii. Advertising is a form of commercial mass communication practice designed to
promote the sale of a product or service, or a message on behalf of an
institution, organization or candidate for political office. Evidence of
advertising can be found in cultures that existed thousands of years ago, but
advertising only became a major industry in the 20th century.26 Though
advertisement aims at promoting the sale of particular products some
however are intended to promote an idea or influence behavior, such as
encouraging people not to use illegal drugs or smoke cigarettes. These
23 T.L Lawrence, Edt. The New Webster’s Dictionary of the English Language, 1972 p 122
24 M. Paul, Television in Academic American Encyclopaedia Vo. 19 Library of Congress Cataloging in
Publication Data, USA 1986, p86
25 M. Paul, Television in Academic American Encyclopaedia Vol. 19
26 Academic American Encyclopaedia Num 19 p111-113

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advertisements are often called public service. Some promote an institution,
such as the Red Cross. Media’s purpose is to encourage people to volunteer
or donate money or services or simply to improve the image of the institution
doing the advertising. Advertising is also used to promote political parties and
candidates for political office. Political advertising has become a key
component of electoral campaigns in many countries. Advertising can further
be divided into two broad categories consumer advertising and trade
advertising.27
The influence of truth theories on media practice is seen in the light of “schema
plural schematu” which is a set of subaltern, overarching and ideological principles
that inspire, generate and guide conduct.28 The media schemata, therefore are those
principles and inspiration that guide media practitioners to see what they actually
see, hear what they actually hear, and present them as fact and objective truth. In
media practice, the core value seems to be preoccupation with issues of freedom,
Human right, profit motive, environmental values and cultural expression.29 When
confronted with the above schemes on the moral scheme, the media plays out these
issues with the schemata of pragmatism.
THE INFLUENCE OF CORRESPONDENCE THEORY ON MEDIA PRACTICES
The influence of correspondence theory on media can be seen when media
practitioners use self-affirming formats and techniques to establish continuities
between various conceptions and actual events portrayed in the news and other
programs and documentaries. In analyzing the infusion of this theory into the
elements of media production there is need to isolate the media elements of this
theory especially as it featured in the Aristotelian Correspondence theory. This
theory is basically the view that
i. There is genuine reality out there, an event occurring, a fact that is objective
as it were.
ii. There is informational apparatus [our senses, the media-cameras,
recorders etc.] by which the objective data are collated and grasped and
organized
27 Microsoft Encarta Encyclopaedia 1993-2008 Microsoft corporation
28 E. Igboanusi, Moral Schemata in Media Ethics, Claretians Pub. Owerri 2006p73
29 E. Igboanusi, Moral schemata in Media Ethics, Claretians Pub. Owerri 2006p74

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iii. There are personal, communal and sense-making mechanisms by
which we abstract and render the data in our cultural stock, our cultural
memory-a total experience.30
In news casting the correspondence theory is very evident as the technology has
now afforded instantaneous reporting, first of all, the news is pivoted on the top of
the hour. The presumption and the implication is that by that time something, an
event would have happened. And after highlighting the headlines, the news anchor
in the studio invites a correspondent to report from the venues of the news event.
Often we hear things like: “our’ Abuja correspondent has this report. By saying “our”
the listener is hereby also incorporated in that inclusive language to feel that this
news, the station, the correspondent belong to him, in the way that he is the
correspondent of that media house in Abuja. He sees things as we see them, he is
trustworthy otherwise we would not have him relay information to us.31 Another
element of facticity is the superimposition of the logo of ‘live’ on the screen. These
simply is a statement that this is not a story being told, it is a story that is happening
at that moment; it is not a report but an event that is real and objective; what one is
seeing or hearing is true and correspond to what is happening at that moment.32
THE INFLUENCES OF ANALYTIC THEORY ON MEDIA PRACTICE
In taking the analytic posture of truth, the media presents news with commentaries.
According to Bertrand Russell’s theory of definite descriptions, in a simple subject-
predicate statement such as Socrates is wise, there seems to be something referred
to [Socrates] and something about it [that is he is wise]. The same procedure is the
basic format of analysis when the media presents issues, and enlarge the
descriptions regarding those events and issues, by involving the opinions of experts,
witnesses view points, etc. In all these, they are adopting the stance of objectivity
advanced by neopositivists who propagate the analytic theory of truth. A clear
example in Nigeria is the Radio links which is a program in which experts are invited
to discuss on some areas of the society or human health in the country and the
world at large.
THE INFLUENCE OF PRAGMATIC THEORY ON MEDIA PRACTICES
30 E. Igboanusi, Moral Schemata in Media Ethics, Claretians Pub. Owerri 2006p144
31 E. Igboanusi, Moral Schemata in Media Ethics, Claretians Pub. Owerri 2006p147
32 E. Igboanusi, Moral Schemata in Media Ethics, Claretians Pub. Owerri 2006p148

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Pragmatism as a theory and as formulated by William James is a reaction against an
earlier form of the correspondence theory of truth.33 It enquires into the use that
can be made of an idea i.e. whether an idea can be tested in work and with practical
consequences. It is a theory about the cash value of any activity one undertakes.
The media are overly driven by these pragmatic values of truth. Truth and validity in
the media industry has basically become what works. Whatever helps to keep the
programs going, since the test of truth is utility, workability or satisfactory results. Of
course such thinking is built on the consequentialists concepts. Consequentialism is
an ethical theory that evaluates all human actions in terms of the extent to which
they meet and address their respective ends or purposes.
They tend to reduce other ethical concepts of value, like right or wrong, useful or
rational, to the notion of the ends or purpose of an action.34 It can further be said
that all media exist as media not for themselves, but for the purposes for which they
are established. A cursory analysis on media practice shows that the dominant
premise by which they operate is on pragmatic principles. All media before their
establishment are grounded on the cash value. This is the reason why Commercial
broadcasting channels e.g. CNN [which is guided by profit motives, use pragmatic
principles in broadcasting their programs. Media, from its origin is a means of
communicating bare facts. This is the guarantee of objectivity. It is in this sense of
bareness of facts and objectivity that the media sustains the audience’s faith as the
most apt means that would convey and authenticate truth claims in all spheres of
life.35 discovering this trust of masses on media, many people or institution embark
on establishing media houses as a means to achieving the aim conceived in their
mind. For example in Nigeria, in the early sixties the pragmatic principle was applied
in the media practice to struggle for independence. Pragmatic method was adopted
when the modern form of Media emerged. Precisely print media was adopted not
with the aims of communicating the bare fact but to challenge the colonial project,
Example of such was ‘The African Pilot’ [founded by Azikiwe which was used to wage
war of independence against the British colonial rule.36 In Awolowo’s word “The west
African pilot blossomed into every corner of the country as the champion of the
33 W. Pragmatism p91
34 E. Igboanusi, Moral Schemata in Media Ethics, Claretians Pub. Owerri 2006p73
35 E. Igboanusi, Moral Schemata in Media Ethics, Claretians Pub. Owerri 2006p114
36 E. Igboanusi, Moral schemata in media Ethics, Claretians Pub. Owerri 2006p44

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common man, the teacher, the trader, the clerk.., it went right to the top”.37 This
medium was used to ginger the masses to protest against
the colonial rule.
Another print media was ‘The Lagos weekly record magazine’ which had an overt
political agenda. The editorials were quite poignant and incisive on issues concerning
the colonial administration. After the independence another media emerged, mostly
to advance the political interest of the owners. Recently media practitioners
upgraded their formats and platforms to dedicated services due to this pragmatic
influence. For example the “Guardian Newspaper” has cut deep into information
technology market by dedicating its Tuesday edition to information technology (IT)
and other days to other sectors of the Economy like environment and estate
development, baking and finance institutions, Energy and Politics. Radio stations
dedicate specific days and times for special programs and to some particular
audiences as their target. For example, every Friday on Heartland F.M., a particular
program is dedicated to couples who are about to marry. On NTA Network, a soap
opera [super story] is relayed every Thursday between 9pm-lOpm. All these
practices are grounded on the pragmatic principle and Practical result is at the basis
of the establishment of all the media organs mentioned above. This principle of
course is what helps to sustain their audience.
EVALUATION AND CONCLUSION
The media, in the modern era, are indisputably an instrument of connecting peoples,
in some circumstances, the interests of the media operators in pursuit of a story and
the masses in pursuit of objective information do not coincide. Thus it has led to
some views; the optimistic view, views media as good and it lead to development
and progress and enhancement of human dignity, and the less optimistic views
media as trivialise the worth of the human person through promoting bad habits,
lurid and exploitative social structures like consumerism, pornography and violence.
Theories of truth only serve as an eye opener and guide to the nature of truth,
These theories are like the proverbial blind men who were asked to describe
elephant, one touching the leg says it is like the three trunk while the one who
touched the tail says, it is like a rope and the one who touched stomach says it is a
37 Q. Jones, A Life of Azikiwe, Baltimore, MD: Penguin Books 1965, p 65

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like wall. In all they are only describing the various parts that make up the animal
elephant. Yet they are saying the truth but from their individual perspectives.

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REFERENCES
James, W., The Meaning of Truth: Longman Green and co, New York 1911
James, W., Pragmatism and the Four Essays, from the Meaning of Truth, Meridian
Books the World Publishing Company, Cleveland and New York 1909
Charles P.S., “Truth and Falsity and Error” (in part), in J.M Baldwin (Ed.) Dictionary
of
Philosophy and Psychology, Vol. 2 New York 1901
Davidson, D., A sociology of Language, Joyce O. Hertzler (ed.) Pub. Random House
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