The Importance of Fact-Checking

The philosophy that animates Ira Glass’s This American Life can be summed up by a simple come on: “Let me tell you a story.” News, almost by definition, rarely conforms to what Aristotle deemed the essential element of storytelling: plot. It consists of dispatches from geographically disparate locales and varying worlds (politics, foreign affairs, finance, sports), and it doesn’t adhere to a scenario. Article continues after advertisement Of late, the proliferation of offerings from online outlets has increased choices while fragmenting audiences, creating an age of hot takes and short attention spans. It’s hard to get consumers of TV and radio news to stay tuned. “Having a plot is a way to make people stick around and provide something that feels satisfying,” Ira Glass noted. “That’s the thing about it that’s helpful. If you have a plot, the story can be mundane. It can be incredibly everyday. But people just want to find out what’s gonna happen, and they’ll hang around.” Not only ... Read full article.