Corse No
Human Behavior
The main aims of journalism is to provide news that is accurate, truth and objective. Very often, journals become interpreters of the facts, they present. It is the duty of journalist, to avoid pluralism and popular opinion. Very often a journalist’s stand on a topic is presented as a news and this leads to misinterpretation or over interpretation. It is not the duty of a journalist to blame events or provide leads and direction.
This tendency of misinterpretation and over interpretation, arises from the basic human behavior of trying to understand and find meaning for all facts. Our social, psychological and personal makeup can influence the interpretation process. Misrepresentation, occurs when we try to give our own meaning to an experience, rather than waiting patiently to understand the true meaning. No human being is perfect and thus his interpretation of facts can go wrong.
A recent example of a new title that can lead to misinterpretation by its readers, was the one published in BBC News: www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-33631694. The article was about a Black American woman who committed suicide, when taken into police custody. Such articles are important in the event of social discrimination and racist attack against black Americans. However the true reason behind the death of this woman is unknown. While her relatives suspect foul play, the police have never provided clear details on how the women could have committed suicide in a prison cell (BBC News).With so much ambiguity in the new, the title of the article: “Sandra Bland spoke of previous suicide bid-Texas sheriff’, misinterprets the contents of the article. The correct title for this article would be “ Sandra Bland: Another Black American Death in Police Custody”
Work cited:
BBC News,. ‘Sandra Bland Spoke of Previous Suicide Bid-Texas Sheriff-BBC News’. N.p.,2015.Web.23July 2015.
