Truth is relative. It shouldn’t be, but in our current social and political climate, it appears that many people have an idea of the truth rather than a devotion to truth itself. That is OK. I’m not here to say you’re wrong – out loud – but I am here to explain how popular culture can not only influence the perception of the real world, but also inform audiences through historical context. And sometimes even more so than people who are telling the truth.
Since we are on the topic of truth, I will defend one of my fields, journalism, as it is a community devoted to the truth despite the childish baseless claims of falsehoods and wrongdoings. I will say that I do not defend all media, however, which is disappointing. I’m a tough cookie to impress or persuade. On a side note, cookies are impressive and can easily persuade me into making a regretful decision.
I also find literature to be a guilty pleasure. I must clarify, though, that just like with the media, that doesn’t apply to all literature. As it’s been mentioned before, my research focuses on the intersection of journalism and popular culture, yet, most research in this space is based on film and television examples. I recently analyzed Terry Prachett’s fantasy novel “The Truth,” which is the 25th book in his acclaimed 41-book Discworld series. The installment is about the development of the newspaper in this universe.
“The Truth”
The purpose of this study was to analyze how “The Truth” portrays journalism, the journalist and the media industry. The novel, which is in classic Pratchett form, has some historical context, however, as it mimics the development of the penny press. William de Worde becomes the editor and publisher of the Ankh-Morpork Times, and quickly experiences the pressures of corporate and political influences and sensationalistic competition. Just like the gool ol’ age of the penny press. Anything has the possibility to inform, even if hidden among vampires, werewolves, zombies, trolls and what have you.
The beauty of fantasy literature, as is the case with most speculative fiction, is that the genre has very loyal fans, reflects social change, illustrates social relations and exploitations, pushes the boundaries of social structure and systems, and increases emotions and knowledge through renditions of society. To sum up, it’s socially important. Should have just started with that.
There are two other significant notes to this study. First, fantasy, again, like all speculative fiction, has a very specific, intelligent and vast segmented audience ripe to be influenced. Second, Pratchett is a former journalist. It is common that authors who create journalism portrayals have a real-world background in the industry.
The analysis of the “The Truth” was ultimately focused on how journalism is presented and received in uncharted mediums and genres and segmented audiences. I read the novel three times for the analysis, which was a collective 1,344 book pages – which was also 896 book pages I could have read of other books, but this is what I go through so a handful of people can read this before I die. The findings suggest that the novel shared similar themes with film and television portrayals, primarily the representation of a newsroom family, the public interest versus corporate and private interest, conflicts involving objectivity and ethics, and the myth of the free press and social responsibility. However, the analysis also found that de Worde did not completely align with the common character tropes found in film and television.
“A lie can run around the world before the truth has got its boots on”
You can read the full article in Journalism and Media, but usually normal people don’t want to read full academic articles, and I don’t blame them or you, or really even myself, because I don’t care for most academic articles either. However, there are some fun excerpts and an expansion on the analysis in the article if you care to indulge.
To further on the aforementioned significant notes, considering fantasy literature has a very loyal fanbase, these portrayals can ultimately support of combat that specific audience’s public image of real-world journalists beyond mainstream audiences, whether negative or positive. Pratchett’s Discworld series has sold over 100 million copies worldwide, so his audience is large and loyal and his genre is known to creatively reflect and challenge social relations, structure and systems.
Also, Pratchett’s background as a journalist brings a sense of credibility to the portrayal. I mean, he was even knighted for his contributions to literature, so that holds a lot of credible weight. Journalism fiction is often written by former journalists, which can be traced back to the 1800s. I’m with you, I don’t know who’s keeping track of that stuff either, but just like with weird sports facts statisticians pass to commentators during a game, there is relevance. These creators can be viewed as boundary spanners because they dabble in both the fictional and real versions of journalism. In addition, they can produce a need for paradigm repair, but also can execute said paradigm repair within the same work.
Boundary spanners? Paradigm repair? What the hell is this guy talking about? Let’s move on to more normal things, shall we?
Moving forward
As with all my research, this study was not meant to just analyze the image of the journalist in popular culture. These examples can influence and inform audiences greatly, especially considering more and more people are gravitating toward entertainment rather than news. Unfortunately, both are more intertwined than they should be.
Yes, that was a shot at the media malpractitioners. Yet, it’s also the truth.
Carl Lawrence Knauf 