The News as Myth

In plain non-technical language, this book argues that "the myth of the news is its supposed objectivity", and that the very forms which presumably guarantee veracity ultimately lead to consistently incomplete and misleading news reports. It draws a distinction between "true fictions"--articles whose general accuracy is demonstrable even when the standards of contemporary reportage are not met--and "false truths" in which a correctly attributed and formally appropriate news story is so...
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In plain non-technical language, this book argues that "the myth of the news is its supposed objectivity", and that the very forms which presumably guarantee veracity ultimately lead to consistently incomplete and misleading news reports. It draws a distinction between "true fictions"--articles whose general accuracy is demonstrable even when the standards of contemporary reportage are not met--and "false truths" in which a correctly attributed and formally appropriate news story is so incomplete or innacurate as to constitute a demonstrable falsehood. Through an innovative and original methodology combining set theory and Roland Barthes' semiology, Koch shows that the narrative form accepted by most academic journalists and practicing news professionals creates a consistent and structural bias which is at the root of most "false truths". Koch then demonstrates how the use of computer information technologies may change and modify the contemporary and inadequate narrative form. This book will be of importance to journalists, sociologists, political scientists and mass communication experts both for its analysis of objectivity and subjectivity as well as for its practical demonstration of the means by which misinformation is introduced into "objective" reports. The examples of news stories in this book also provides an excellent series of case studies which will be of particulat interest to educators teaching journalism or focusing on the relation between reportage and the society at large. Finally, the innovative use of online computer-based information technologies in Koch's research presents a new approach to ongoing analysis of the relation between computer technologies and public information.