The article at hand is titled “Why media commentary is so crucial when opinions displace fact” and deals with journalism and their tasks today and the dangers from social media.
“When Scott wrote his facts-are-sacred essay in 1921, he was already rowing against the tide.” (ll. 29-30), is a metaphor by the author. Charles Scott wrote his essay in 1921, a few years after WW1 took place. While the war, he supported the prime minister that crucial facts about the frontline horrors should be kept from the public to prevent a peace movement gaining hold (ll. 32-33) and preserve a war friendly sentiment in the empire. It was crucial for the empire to win the first world war, otherwise it would have lost some of its colonies – and with that labor force and resources. The authors metaphor fits well, because Scott experienced it himself in 1921, that there are times when facts aren’t sacred.
The job of journalist is important for our today’s world – journalism helps to reveal the truth, so let’s consider some basic journalistic editing tasks: Writing an article is not an easy job. As a journalist you have to collect facts and information, but the job doesn’t end here: The order matters, its crucial to put them in some kind of order (l. 4), as omit irrelevant noise (l. 7). The goal of this is a self-revealing story: Obviously, the reader wants an interesting and informative article. Omitting unnecessary information and a nice ordering helps to make an article more understandable.
The text also mentions the major role of media commentators today: The task of the today’s media commentator is simple: Highlight the facts (l. 36) and do that as transparent and often (l. 38) as possible, for a wide audience (l. 37). The role of the media commentator becomes even more important, because facts are displaced by opinions in social media (l.27). It is essential to have someone who displaces opinion with facts.
As we see the job of a journalist is not so easy, and is also important for our democratic society in times of social media.
