When we first started talking about truth in Quest English 8 I was very confused and I have to admit, I don't understand it any more now. That's the thing though, I don't really think there is a definition for truth. It is something we will never know everything about. To know the truth, you would have to know every view and perspective, and you will never know everything.
I think there is a difference between "truth" as a noun, and "true" as an adjective. Something can be true without being the truth. One part may be true, but it can't be the truth unless you have all the information.
This is even harder as a journalist because people expect the truth. You have to work to get as close to the truth as possible, even if you will never get the whole story. One mistake can ruin the little truth that you have. You can not be firsthand at everything, so you have to rely on others which makes things even more complicated. Humans are not machines, and don't always tell you true information.
Some people really enjoy giving false information or putting it on the internet. That makes it a lot harder to get reliable information. You have to think a lot more about what sources you are getting information from. A lot of people don't know this and believe that everything they read is true which then spreads like wildfire. Then all of the sudden you have something like Macaulay Culkin dying for like the 4th time.
Quotes and reliable sources are good ways to avoid false information but still need to be checked. Writing reliable stories would be much easier if you knew that everything was true, but it's not. It just is another important layer to journalism.
