Truthfulness and Deception

In my blog entry from April 8th I touched on the issue of truthfulness and deception. This time around I would like to elaborate on that topic.

The instance that triggered my thought process to go in that direction when I was writing my blog was a conversation I had with a friend. Though the conversation would best be described as off topic with regards to journalism, it got me thinking.

Like anyone involved with journalism I find it crucial that truthfulness is always a top priority in my own, as well as other people’s work. Be it blogs, news stories, or other forms of factual communication, truthfulness must be the foundation.

Getting back to the conversation now, it was also about truthfulness and deception. However, truthfulness in a personal exchange of information rather than in a journalistic sense.

My friend told me about how a person who he had “met” online might have been deceiving him. He had been talking to this person on several occasions via email, chat, and phone calls. In addition to this he had received photographs of who he thought was the person he was having these conversations with.

Somewhere along the line of these conversations he got the impression that the person was not being completely truthful about who the person was. When confronted with more interrogative questions the person cut all connections, further feeding my friend’s suspicion.

Where all this fits in to a journalistic blog is on the issue of deception by a source who you perceive as being truthful.

Some people use the anonymity of the internet as a shield and, in extreme cases, even make up a fictitious personality. Fiction is portrayed as were it factual.

In a similar way blogs create a forum for someone to express themselves without necessarily letting the receiver hold the writer accountable. You can basically post a bunch of untruths and you are home free because you do not have to answer to anyone.

This, of course, presupposes that you do not include your personal information on your blog.

What I learned from the conversation I had with my friend strengthened my belief in always having a critical approach to sources online; professional as well as personal.