Truthiness
Truthiness is the belief or assertion that a particular statement is true based on the
The concept of truthiness has emerged as a major subject of discussion surrounding U.S. politics during the late 20th and early 21st centuries because of the perception among some observers of a rise in propaganda and a growing hostility toward factual reporting and fact-based discussion.[3]
American television comedian
Use by Stephen Colbert
Stephen Colbert, portraying his character Dr. Stephen T. Colbert, chose the word truthiness just moments before taping the premiere episode of The Colbert Report on October 17, 2005, after deciding the originally scripted word – "truth" – was not absolutely ridiculous enough: "We're not talking about truth, we're talking about something that seems like truth – the truth we want to exist", he explained.[15][16] He introduced his definition in the first segment of the episode, saying: "Now I'm sure some of the 'word police', the 'wordinistas' over at Webster's are gonna say, 'Hey, that's not a word'. Well, anybody who knows me knows I'm no fan of dictionaries or reference books. They're elitist. Constantly telling us what is or isn't true. Or what did or didn't happen."[7]
When asked in an out-of-character interview with The Onion's A.V. Club for his views on "the 'truthiness' imbroglio that's tearing our country apart", Colbert elaborated on the critique he intended to convey with the word:[6]
Truthiness is tearing apart our country, and I don't mean the argument over who came up with the word ...
It used to be, everyone was entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts. But that's not the case anymore. Facts matter not at all. Perception is everything. It's certainty. People love the President [George W. Bush] because he's certain of his choices as a leader, even if the facts that back him up don't seem to exist. It's the fact that he's certain that is very appealing to a certain section of the country. I really feel a dichotomy in the American populace. What is important? What you want to be true, or what is true? ...
Truthiness is 'What I say is right, and [nothing] anyone else says could possibly be true.' It's not only that I feel it to be true, but that I feel it to be true. There's not only an emotional quality, but there's a selfish quality.
During an interview on December 8, 2006, with Charlie Rose,[17] Colbert stated:
I was thinking of the idea of passion and emotion and certainty over information. And what you feel in your gut, as I said in the first Wørd we did, which was sort of a thesis statement of the whole show – however long it lasts – is that sentence, that one word, that's more important to, I think, the public at large, and not just the people who provide it in prime-time cable, than information.
At the
Colbert refreshed "truthiness" in an episode of
Coverage by news media
After Colbert's introduction of truthiness, it quickly became widely used and recognized. Six days after,
Within a few months of its introduction by Colbert, truthiness was discussed in .
The February 13, 2006 issue of Newsweek featured an article on The Colbert Report titled "The Truthiness Teller", recounting the career of the word truthiness since its popularization by Colbert.[13]
The New York Times coverage and usage
In its issue of October 25, 2005, eight days after the premiere episode of the Report, The New York Times ran its third article on The Colbert Report, "Bringing Out the Absurdity of the News".[31] The article specifically discussed the segment on "truthiness", although the Times misreported the word as "trustiness". In its November 1, 2005 issue, the Times ran a correction. On the next episode of the Report, Colbert took the Times to task for the error, pointing out, ironically, that "trustiness" is "not even a word".[32]
The New York Times again discussed "truthiness" in its issue of December 25, 2005, this time as one of nine words that had captured the year's
In the January 22, 2006 issue, columnist
The New York Times published two letters on the 2006
Frank Rich referenced truthiness again in
Recognition
Usage of "truthiness" continued to proliferate in media, politics, and public consciousness. On January 5, 2006,
The word was listed in the annual "
American Dialect Society's Word of the Year
On January 6, 2006, the American Dialect Society announced that "truthiness" was selected as its 2005 Word of the Year. The Society described its rationale as follows:
In its 16th annual words of the year vote, the American Dialect Society voted truthiness as the word of the year. First heard on The Colbert Report, a satirical mock news show on the Comedy Central television channel, truthiness refers to the quality of preferring concepts or facts one wishes or believes to be true, rather than concepts or facts known to be true. As Stephen Colbert put it, "I don't trust books. They're all fact, no heart."[10]
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Year
On December 10, 2006, the Merriam-Webster Dictionary announced that "truthiness" was selected as its 2006 Word of the Year on Merriam-Webster's Words of the Year, based on a reader poll, by a 5–1 margin over the second-place word google.[11] "We're at a point where what constitutes truth is a question on a lot of people's minds, and truth has become up for grabs", said Merriam-Webster president John Morse. "'Truthiness' is a playful way for us to think about a very important issue."[46] However, despite winning Word of the Year, the word does not appear in the 2006 edition of the Merriam-Webster English Dictionary. In response to this omission, during "The Wørd" segment on December 12, 2006, Colbert issued a new page 1344 for the tenth edition of the Merriam Webster dictionary that featured "truthiness". To make room for the definition of "truthiness", including a portrait of Colbert, the definition for the word "try" was removed with Colbert stating "Sorry, try. Maybe you should have tried harder." He also sarcastically told viewers to "not" download the new page and "not" glue it in the new dictionary in libraries and schools.[47][non-primary source needed]
The New York Times crossword puzzle
In the June 14, 2008 edition of The New York Times, the word was featured as 1-across in the
BBC "portrait of the decade"
In December 2009, the BBC online magazine asked its readers to nominate suggestions of things to be included on a poster which would represent important events in the 2000s (decade), divided into five different categories: "People", "Words", "News", "Objects" and "Culture". Suggestions were sent in and a panel of five independent experts shortened each category to what they saw as the 20 most important. Among the nominations selected in the "Words" category was "Truthiness". As a result, the word "Truthiness" appeared in the poster.[50]
Research
In 2012, a study examining truthiness was carried out by PhD student Eryn Newman of Victoria University of Wellington. The experiments showed that people are more likely to believe a claim is true regardless of evidence when a decorative photograph appears alongside it.[51][52]
Also in 2012, Harvard University's Berkman Center hosted a two-day symposium at Harvard and MIT, "Truthiness in Digital Media", exploring "concerns about misinformation and disinformation" in new media.[53][54]
The Truthiness Collaborative is a project at USC's Annenberg School "to advance research and engagement around the misinformation, disinformation, propaganda and other challenges to discourse fueled by our evolving media and technology ecosystem".[55][56]
See also
- Alternative facts
- Bellyfeel
- Big lie – Propaganda technique
- Cognitive dissonance
- Confabulation
- Disinformation
- Doublethink
- Factoid
- Fake news
- De facto
- Illusory truth effect
- Mathiness
- Misinformation
- Newspeak
- Noble lie
- On Bullshit – an essay by Harry Frankfurt, originally written in 1986 but published as a book on January 10, 2005, nine months before Colbert coined truthiness
- Political correctness
- Processing fluency – a statement is more likely to be considered true if it is easier to process.
- Post-truth politics
- Selective exposure theory
- Solipsism
- Trumpism
- Truth sandwich
- Verisimilitude
- Wikiality– another word coined by Colbert
References
- ^ Meyer, Dick (December 12, 2006). "The Truth of Truthiness". CBS News. Archived from the original on November 16, 2013. Retrieved December 14, 2006.
- ^ "Truthiness". Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House. Retrieved May 22, 2017.
- ^ ISBN 978-1614342205.
- ISBN 978-1-137-30397-4.
- ^ Zimmer, Benjamin. "Language Log: Truthiness or Trustiness?". Retrieved June 4, 2006.
- ^ a b Rabin, Nathan (January 25, 2006). "Interview: Stephen Colbert". A.V. Club. Retrieved February 17, 2014.
- ^ a b "The Colbert Report: Videos: The Word (Truthiness)". October 17, 2005. Retrieved November 7, 2018.
- ^ "The Word – Wikiality – The Colbert Report (Video Clip)". Comedy Central. July 31, 2006. Retrieved May 14, 2020.
- ^ Smith, Christy Hardin (June 5, 2006). "A Stop on the Veritasiness Tour 2006". Firedoglake. Archived from the original on October 2, 2011. Retrieved September 3, 2010.
- ^ a b "Truthiness Voted 2005 Word of the Year by American Dialect Society" (PDF). Retrieved June 4, 2006.
- ^ a b "Merriam-Webster's Words of the Year 2006". Merriam-Webster. Archived from the original on January 21, 2015. Retrieved December 8, 2006.
- ^ "Benjamin Zimmer homepage". Retrieved June 4, 2006.
- ^ ISSN 0028-9604. Archived from the originalon April 25, 2006. Retrieved June 4, 2006.
- ^ Kiser, Emily (January 10, 2006). "Colbert puts professor 'on notice': Michael Adams, featured in a recent Associated Press article, incurs the wrath of Comedy Central 'pundit'". Technician. Retrieved February 5, 2017.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved October 27, 2007.
- ^ "Colbert Report Writers – The Truthiness Behind The Lines, Truthiness and Pun Journals". The Paley Center, YouTube channel. November 7, 2009. Archived from the original on December 21, 2021. Retrieved June 25, 2013.
- ^ Charlie Rose (December 8, 2006), "A conversation with comedian Stephen Colbert" Archived September 15, 2008, at the Wayback Machine . Retrieved on August 14, 2008.
- ^ E&P Staff (April 29, 2006). "Colbert Lampoons Bush at White House Correspondents Dinner – President Not Amused?". Editor and Publisher. Archived from the original on May 31, 2006. Retrieved May 7, 2006.
- ^ E&P Staff (May 2, 2006). "Tuesday's Letters: Colbert Offensive, Colbert Mediocre, Colbert a Hero, Colbert Vicious, Colbert Brave". Retrieved June 4, 2006.
- ISSN 0740-5421. Retrieved June 4, 2006.
- ^ Scherer, Michael (May 1, 2006). "The truthiness hurts". Salon. Archived from the original on June 15, 2006. Retrieved June 4, 2006.
- ^ "The Colbert Report: Morley Safer Profiles Comedy Central's "Fake" Newsman". CBS News. March 30, 2006. Retrieved June 4, 2006.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved November 22, 2006.
- ISSN 0740-5421. Retrieved November 22, 2006.
- ^ McClennen, Sophia (July 22, 2016). "Colbert goes After Trumpiness: His live RNC coverage revives the comedy of "The Colbert Report"". Salon. Retrieved August 16, 2016.
- ^ "Stephen Colbert resurrects his Colbert Report 'The Word' segment to define 'Trumpiness'". The Week. July 19, 2016. Retrieved August 16, 2016.
- ^ Golshan, Tara (July 19, 2016). "Watch: Stephen Colbert brings back "The Word" to deconstruct the Trump supporter's psyche". Vox. Retrieved August 16, 2016.
- ^ Bradley, Laura (July 19, 2016). "Stephen Colbert Brought Back "Stephen Colbert" (and Jon Stewart) During His R.N.C. Bonanza". Vanity Fair. Retrieved August 16, 2016.
- ^ It was also used September 23, 2008 by CNN's American Morning by John Roberts. Howard Kurtz (transcript) (October 23, 2005). "CNN Reliable Sources". CNN. Retrieved June 4, 2006.
- ^ "[D1RT]: stephen colbert on ..." Archived from the original on December 24, 2008. Retrieved September 19, 2008.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved June 4, 2006.
- ^ Many dictionaries (e.g. American Heritage Archived October 10, 2006, at the Wayback Machine , Merriam-Webster, New Oxford Dictionary of English, etc.) offer definitions for trustiness.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved June 4, 2006.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved December 26, 2008.
- ^ Strupp, Joe (January 22, 2006). "'NY Times' Frank Rich Taking Book Leave". Retrieved January 23, 2006.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved June 4, 2006.
- ^ ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved September 21, 2008.
- ^ "Where Words Come From". January 5, 2006. Retrieved June 4, 2006.
- ^ "Word of the Week Archive". Archived from the original on March 23, 2006. Retrieved June 4, 2006.
- ^ "Global Language Monitor". www.languagemonitor.com.
- ^ ""Truthiness", "Wikiality" named TV words of year". Reuters. August 28, 2006. Archived from the original on September 28, 2011. Retrieved November 25, 2008.
- ^ "'Truthiness' and 'Wikiality' Named Top Television Buzzwords of 2006 Followed by 'Katrina', 'Katie,' and 'Dr. McDreamy'". Global Language Monitor. August 27, 2006. Archived from the original on October 16, 2011. Retrieved September 29, 2011.
- ^ "Lake Superior State University 2007 List of Banished Words". Archived from the original on September 19, 2010. Retrieved October 25, 2010.
- ^ "Colbert Report Episode 3001 (1/8/2006) overview". Archived from the original on October 19, 2007. Retrieved October 17, 2007.
- ^ "Lake Superior State University 2008 List of Banished Words". Archived from the original on October 17, 2013. Retrieved October 25, 2010.
- ^ Gorlick, Adam (December 8, 2006). "Colbert's 'truthiness' pronounced Word of the Year". AP/Houston Chronicle.
- ^ Colbert, Stephen (December 12, 2006). "Who's Honoring Me Now? – Merriam-Webster's Word of the Year". Colbert Nation. Retrieved March 6, 2014.
- ^ Parker, Rex (June 14, 2008). "Saturday, Jun . 14, 2008". Rex Parker does the NYT crossword puzzle (personal blog). Retrieved June 30, 2008.
- ^ "Daily/Colbert – Crossword Puzzle" (video). Comedy Central. June 18, 2008. Retrieved December 20, 2008.
- ^ "A portrait of the decade". BBC. December 14, 2009. Retrieved December 17, 2009.
- 3 News. Archived from the originalon February 12, 2013. Retrieved August 14, 2012.
- ^ "Scientists discover the truth behind Colbert's "truthiness"". Springer Science+Business Media. August 8, 2012. Retrieved August 14, 2012.
- ^ "Truthiness in Digital Media". Blogs.harvard.edu. Retrieved August 10, 2020.
- ^ Himler, Peter (March 7, 2012). "Truthiness in Digital Media". Forbes.com. Archived from the original on March 8, 2012. Retrieved August 10, 2020.
- ^ "Truthiness Collaborative". USC Annenberg Innovation Lab. Retrieved August 10, 2020.
- ^ Legg, Heidi; Kerwin, Joe (November 1, 2018). "The Fight Against Disinformation in the U.S.: A Landscape Analysis". Harvard Kennedy School, Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy. Retrieved August 10, 2020.
External links
- Video feed of Stephen introducing "Truthiness" on The Colbert Report
- "Wikiality.com". Archived from the original on September 5, 2008. Retrieved August 15, 2008.
- Zimmer, Benjamin. "Truthiness: a flash in the pan?". Language Log.
- "Macmillan Dictionary on truthiness". Archived from the original on March 23, 2006. Retrieved March 20, 2006.
- Global Language Monitor on Top Television Buzzwords
- Observatory on Social Media Archived March 12, 2021, at the Wayback Machine (truthy.indiana.edu), a project at Indiana University.