CONSTRUCTION OF THE TRUTH AND DESTRUCTION OF A MILLION LITTLE PIECES

Abstract

A recent case in the United States has called into question the value that we, societally speaking, place on truth. This research attempts to understand how an audience of reasonable persons—opinion and editorial writers—reacted to and subsequently framed truth in the James Frey case. The editorial pages provide a place with which to begin public discussion of key issues, whether political, social, or moral. The qualitative, framing analysis examines editorials and opinion pieces with the purpose of providing an understanding of the news frame surrounding “truth.” Findings indicate that editorial and opinion writers strongly supported truth as a bedrock for a functional society. However, while editorial and opinion writers clearly acknowledged the contributions of other societal institutions to ushering in the “Age of Truthiness,” they were negligent in considering the contributions of their own institution.

Keywords:

• editorials
• ethics
• framing
• truth

Notes

1. While some might argue with this statement, the intention here is to indicate that editorials and opinion pieces serve a different role than hard news stories. For a history of “objectivity” as related to the American press, see, David T. Z. Mindich's Just the Facts (1999).

2. Providing a complete history or philosophical analysis of “truth” is outside the scope of this project. Rather, “truth” is discussed within one philosophical context in an effort to provide a theoretical guideline for the study.

3. Initially, 40 articles met inclusion criteria; however, seven articles were found to be repeats or were editorials/opinion pieces on a different subject that mentioned the case in passing.