What is truth? This can be a philosophical question. Truth has been a topic of discussion for thousands of years among philosophers since the days of Socrates and Plato. But in this course, we're not trying to discuss philosophical definitions of the truth, what we're concerned with is how to tell which information is more reliable and trustworthy in news stories. What we need is a working definition of truth in journalism or journalistic truth. You may say it's simple. Telling the truth means reporting what happened with verified facts. Well, it sounds simple but in reality, it's not easy to do that. The September 11 terrorist attacks in New York in 2001, for example, took place in front of many people. When the second plane hit the World Trade Center, there were millions of people all over the world watching it unfold on TV. Many of us saw what happened firsthand through live broadcasts, but even though we were witnessing what was happening, we had little idea about what was really going on. Who's behind the attack? Who were the passengers? How did the terrorists take control of the planes? There were many unanswered questions. We wanted to know the truth immediately. But as you can imagine, it takes weeks, months and years of investigations before we have a reasonable understanding of how such attacks have been planned and carried out. Oftentimes, journalist are telling news stories with a limited amount of information and facts. Yes, a good reporter is always trying to tell the truth, but the truth that we speak of is provisional. When a new piece of evidence emerges, the previous news stories could turn out to be false or incorrect. The truth in journalism is not a certainty. In science, truths are also provisional. For a long time, people believed that the Earth was flat. Newton, Darwin, Einstein, they all advanced our knowledge by presenting new theories that challenged our perceptions and understanding of the world. The truth in journalism is not a conclusive account, but the best obtainable version of the news events based on verified facts up to that point of publication. News reporting is a continuing journey. The truth can only build over time. To know and understand the truth, we, the news audience, also need to follow media coverage over time. A few years ago, there was this story in the news media about Oreo cookies. Now the news headlines from the Atlantic, the Washington Post and Time magazine all suggested, Oreo's could be as hazardous as highly addictive drugs. This Forbes magazine headlines says, “Oreo cookies are as addictive as cocaine to our brains”. Is it really true though? Well when you read the actual article, you realize that the only evidence mentioned in the story is a small scale lab experiment on rats. The findings could be applicable to human beings, but as of its writing there was no definitive evidence of Oreos’ influence on our brains. We cannot and should not say anything conclusive because we don't know the truth yet. Now this may not be the most significant example of provisional truth, but I believe you can see how news reporters still make stories during the truth finding process and sensationalize it in some cases. Finding the truth is like completing a jigsaw puzzle. You don't get the full image until that last piece fits into place. It takes time. In the context of news literacy, it's important for us to remember that all of us, including journalists and scientists, put wrong jigsaw pieces together in the process. Good journalists should have verified all the facts until the best obtainable version of the truth when their stories get to us. And smart news consumers should know that the truth is provisional and the story could change in the future. If you want to know the truth, you can't be a passive member of the news audience. You should actively keep following the topics and the issues you care about over time. You should also demand the news media investigate the stories further. My colleague, for one, told me that he'd really like to know the truth about whether Oreos are addictive to humans. He's a father of two kids who simply love eating cookies.