A philosophical inquiry presented to students to assist in developing truth seeking, questioning and skepticism when filtering information from various media sources.

1. Truth In Media

2. Understandings
• U1a: Our perceptions and biases influence
our understanding of what is true.
• U1b: The search for truth is difficult

3. Perceptions
• We all have different views, or perceptions
based on our life experiences or stories told to
us by others.

4. Biases
• Biases like optical illusions allow us to see
what we would like to see and even distorts
the truth unconsciously.

5. Changing Perspectives
• Often insight and behaviour-change happens
when we start viewing things from different
perspectives.

6. • What you see, feel and respond to is
connected to your perception.
• This is the inner world of your learned biases.

7. Natural Story Tellers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylhqasb1chI

8. What is truth?
• O.E. triewð (W.Saxon), treowð (Mercian)
"faithfulness, quality of being true," from
triewe, treowe "faithful" .

9. Discernment
• late 12c., from O.N. skil "distinction,
discernment," related to skilja (v.) "distinguish,
separate," from P.Gmc. *skaljo- "divide,
separate" (cf. M.L.G. schillen "to differ;"
M.L.G., M.Du. schele "difference;"

10. Intelligence
• intellect (n.)
• late 14c. (but little used before 16c.), from
O.Fr. intellecte "intellectual capacity" (13c.),
and directly from L. intellectus "discernment,
a perception, understanding," from noun use
of pp. of intelligere "to understand, discern"
(see intelligence).
Intellectual
Character!

11. Knowing

12. Blind Faith
• Why is justice blind?-
Objectivity- vs
sensationalism (Truth)
Themis

13. How do we discover what is true?
Discernment
Intelligence Knowing
Objectivity

14. Truth

15. Manufacturing Consent

16. Manufacture of Consent- Propaganda
• That the manufacture of consent is capable of great refinements no one, I think,
denies. The process by which public opinions arise is certainly no less intricate than
it has appeared in these pages, and the opportunities for manipulation open to
anyone who understands the process are plain enough. . . . [a]s a result of
psychological research, coupled with the modern means of communication, the
practice of democracy has turned a corner. A revolution is taking place, infinitely
more significant than any shifting of economic power. . . . Under the impact of
propaganda, not necessarily in the sinister meaning of the word alone, the old
constants of our thinking have become variables. It is no longer possible, for
example, to believe in the original dogma of democracy; that the knowledge needed
for the management of human affairs comes up spontaneously from the human
heart. Where we act on that theory we expose ourselves to self-deception, and to
forms of persuasion that we cannot verify. It has been demonstrated that we
cannot rely upon intuition, conscience, or the accidents of casual opinion if we are
to deal with the world beyond our reach.
• — Walter Lippmann, Public Opinion
• “Growth, Progress: Necessary Illusions” What model is the world evolving to?

17. Manufacturing Consent
• World War II
• Propaganda
• And of course Donald Duck!
The blurring of the lines
between the
Government,
Corporations and
personal freedom and
choice.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqMVpcbhpqw

18. What does a journalist do?
• Respect for truth and the public's right to
information are fundamental principles of
journalism.
• Journalists describe society to itself. They
convey information, ideas and opinions, a
privileged role. They search, disclose, record,
question, entertain, suggest and remember.
• They inform citizens and animate democracy.

19. Code of Ethics
• Journalists code of ethics - an oxymoron?
• Most media journalists belong to the
Australian Journalists Association, a division of
a trade union called the Media Entertainment
and Arts Alliance (MEAA). Members are
required to follow a code of ethics

20. Code of Ethics
• Members engaged in journalism commit
themselves to
– Honesty
– Fairness
– Independence
– Respect for the rights of others

21. Media: Big Business
Is there a
difference
between the
story and the
advertising?

22. Media Manipulating Truth for Profit
• Fox News: The investigators
The news is what
we say it is! http://www.youtube.com/watch
?v=eZkDikRLQrw
7:00min

23. When things become not so ethical!
• Decline of News of the World
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIXk
33Goizc

24. Truth Stranger then Fiction
Humans insatiable need to be entertained.
Vs
Fact.

25. Clockwork Orange
London Riots

26. George Orwell’s 1984
Smart- TV

27. Thank Goodness for the ABC

28. 2005 Word of the Year
• Truthiness "act or quality of preferring
concepts or facts one wishes to be true, rather
than those known to be true,"
American Dialect Society

29. • http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=how
-to-stop-misinformation-from-becoming-popular-
belief&fb_action_ids=10151274379199747&fb_action_
types=og.likes&fb_source=aggregation&fb_aggregation
_id=288381481237582

30. Discernment
Intelligence Truth Knowing
Objectivity

31. Could you weigh up honour versus truth?
Someone's life Versus Truth?
Justice Versus the Truth? Can you handle the
TRUTH?
http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=5j2F4VcBmeo

32. Read between the Lines!
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M1ND5 C4N D0 4M4Z1NG 7H1NG5!
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17 WA5 H4RD BU7 N0W, 0N 7H15 LIN3 Y0UR
M1ND 1S R34D1NG 17 4U70M471C4LLY
W17H0U7 3V3N 7H1NK1NG 4B0U7 17.
• B3 PROUD!
Thank You.

33. EXTRA EXTRA Read All About It!
• From “The Corporation”
• Why did Fox news want the statement about
the growth hormone in Milk have the word
“CANCER” omitted and instead replaced with
“Human health implications” ?

34. EXTRA EXTRA Read All About It!
• Your Turn:
• Create a headline for the following stories.
• Policeman finds dog walking on its own on the
street.
• Middle Eastern Man stopped by customs
official with a expired passport.

35. Lecture Created and presented by
Ragnar Haabjoern
Blog| http://thewonderingecologist.blogspot.com/
Twitter | @whyhowwho