Lab+9

Lab 9: Truthiness

Ben Zimmer's article on the word "Truthiness" coined by Stephen Colbert on his show The Colbert Report. Colbert's specific definition of the word is a truth that is known instinctively without consideration of factual evidence or logic. The use of the word was intended as a satire on the use of emotional appeal as a rhetorical device in the socio political realm. Specifically, it seems that this satire took aim at the many emotionally charged political news shows that rely too heavily on emotion in selling viewpoints. I believe that Colbert's satire was intended to point out the lacking effectiveness of various radical political television shows that have long left factual evidence and logic behind them as justifications to viewpoints.

I believe that the extreme popularity of the word "Truthiness" merely goes to show how convincing a generic word lacking of a solid definition can appeal to a number of people. The satire demonstrates exactly how propaganda occurs in our time; generic and unjustified ideas that only sound appealing just due to how simple they are. It is the case of emotion and passion chosen of factual information, a choice that is echoed by numerous institutions in our everyday lives. It is not uncommon for political leaders or broadcast networks to purposely fine tune discourse to specifically cater to emotion in order to limit critical thinking and the questioning of facts and information.

Ultimately the satire concerns the morality over institutions that feed us information and their responsibility to be truthful and factual. It seems that in current times, the news industry has been following the formula of an attention economy; catering to those who want attention and want what they feel to be true to be communicated. Such processes has have a significant impact over the disappearance of truth in a lot of what we read, watch, hear and so on. The use of "Truthiness" seems to be cry for factual truth and elimination of opinions masked as truths.