Muse Magazine - October 2017

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While some argue that the fragmentation of media has democratised news, permitting a novel diversity of voices, the proliferation of blogs through which anyone can proclaim expertise (remember Belle Gibson?), and clickbait (headlines designed to seduce you and your mouse into propping up the new advertising metric) have made divining the provenance of information more, not less, treacherous. Just add downsized news teams compelled to run press releases verbatim (prudent time to admit that I took some of the quotes in the mindfulness piece straight from a university press release and remind you that to really comprehend scientific studies, we need to know something of funding sources, study design and what hasn’t been reported). In that vein, omission of fact often imagined as dishonesty is vindicated on p. 92, where the PR in charge of releasing information on the tragic day of the Lindt Cafe siege discusses complex and delicate considerations that challenge the public’s ‘right to know’. Such socially responsible non veritas may earn the label ‘positive truth negative’, which we guess, in sum, is the point of muse – not to strive for neutrality, but for a balance of opinions and perspectives. To let people tell their stories and invite us all to walk in another’s shoes.