You can't handle the truth!!

In a postmodernist world, is it ever really possible for the truth? Can we actually be sure that what we hear is in fact true? What is truth? I mean really, can anyone actually give me an unquestioned, true definition of truth (yes I realise the irony in the question)? I mean, as journalists, or aspiring journalists, we should have a firm grasp on the concept of truth.

"However, truth is a highly contentious term, truth can have many points of view, and many ways of being described. We all believe that there should be truth and moralistic fibre within the journalism industry. But is it not with the term itself that like so many others, means so much, yet so little to so many! The term truth can be put in a basket with other contentious terms, we could call this the basket of deception! These are terms like, genius, creativity, popular and now... truth. All of these terms are constantly used, but who can actually give them a set definition. For example the term popular can be described in many ways. This is an idea which first occurred to me during my study of popular music.

This is an extract from an essay I wrote in my second year of University, which I think sums up the difficulty defining terms:

The various ways in which popular can be defined creates numerous problems for all sectors. From business, to consumers, from artists to critics, the term ‘popular’ means various things for people in different cultures and countries. Kassabian (1999, p113) argues that popular “has a long, strange and highly charged history. It modifies a stunning array of nouns”. Meaning that ‘popular’ can be used in many circumstances to describe different things. This in turn, causes a great amount of variation in defining popularity. She further emphasises this through the statement “Popular can mean – and has meant - many things to many different people” (p122).

Thus, there is always going to be some confusion and contention around words such as popular, or the truth, because they mean so many things to so many different people. This is apart of the bigger picture, as to why the truth seems so unattainable at times.

I need to think more about this, stay tuned!