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Abstract
Why do we trust TV news? What reasons might support a recipient’s assessment of the trustworthiness of this kind of information? This paper presents a veritistic analysis of the epistemic practice of news production and communication. The topic is approached by discussing a detailed case study, namely the characteristics of the most popular German news programme, called the ‘Tagesschau’. It will be shown that a veritistic analysis can indeed provide a recipient with relevant reasons to consider when pondering on the trustworthiness of sources of information. Moreover, it will turn out that these reasons are part of what recipients might gather from media literacy.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Philip Kitcher and Boris Lanin for helpful comments on earlier versions of this paper.
Notes
1. That there are important differences between media systems of different countries can, for example, be noted in the critical remarks that Philip Kitcher (Citation2011, 183ff.) points out concerning the news market in the US.
2. A more detailed analysis is offered in Mößner Citation2010, ch. 5.
3. See ‘About us’. Accessed 15 August 2017. http://intern.tagesschau.de/about-us/. For more information about the history of the ‘Tagesschau’ see Jaedicke Citation2002; Matzen and Radler Citation2009.
4. Several editions are broadcast during a single day (see http://www.tagesschau.de/multimedia/livestreams/, accessed 15 August 2017).
5. The first anchorwoman was Dagmar Berghoff who started her job in 1976 (see Kufeld Citation2009).
6. This formal setting is often cited as a critical point in surveys amongst ‘Tagesschau’ viewers. Especially young people consider the ‘Tagesschau’ to be stiff and prosaic in comparison to other news programmes (see Blumers, Gerstner, and Tebert Citation2010, 135f.; Zubayr and Geese Citation2009, 169).
7. This is also the main distinction of the second type, where the editors write the text by using information from news agencies.
8. ARD stands for Arbeitsgemeinschaft der öffentlich-rechtlichen Rundfunkanstalten der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, i.e. association of public service broadcasters in Germany.
9. For a critical discussion of this approach in the debate on knowledge by testimony see Faulkner Citation2011, ch. 4; Gelfert Citation2014, ch. 5.
10. For a critical discussion of such approaches in the debate about knowledge by testimony see Faulkner Citation2011, ch. 2, and Gelfert Citation2014, ch. 5.
11. Of course, this presupposes that the recipients are able to find out that they were seriously misled by the news programme.
12. This is also formulated in the Interstate Broadcasting Treaty, article 11e, second sentence (see Interstate Broadcasting Treaty 2016).
13. Admittedly, there might be overlaps between the categories. A more detailed analysis is offered in Mößner Citation2010, ch. 5.2.
14. ‘Sich informieren bedeutet, die verschiedenen Medien abwechselnd zu konsultieren, eine wenig zuverlässige Quelle auszuscheiden usw. Auch die Bürger haben also eine Verpflichtung: Sie müssen aktiv nach Information suchen’: Ramonet Citation1999, 72.