Abstract

News reporting as a form of discourse has been too long neglected by philosophy. In particular news is a truth discourse. As such it is significantly different from science, philosophy and history, the three forms of discourse more commonly treated in truth theoretic discussions. ;This difference is most evident in the analysis of news form and content. The top-down, inverted pyramid form of news narrative is specifically designed to feature content that is objective and relevant. After some analysis of this narrative form I turn to the truth theoretic issues of objectivity and relevance. ;Objectivity, in particular proves to be an elusive concept. After examining some unacceptable definitions I characterize objectivity as an inter-subjective phenomenon. I treat relevance in a similar manner. ;These analyses naturally lead into a discussion of truth theory. I examine the two main branches of truth theory, correspondence and coherence. In doing so, I formulate a theory of resonance for news narrative that partakes of both correspondence and coherence considerations. Resonance, in this sense, is not a theory of truth, but a useful tool in the analysis of news. ;Using the resonance theory for news narrative I undertake a case study of a particular news story. Here I test the alethic resonances, derived in part from correspondence and coherence considerations, against a news story that is particularly challenging from a truth theoretic standpoint. ;Finally I take up the wider dialectic of truth and news. The goal here is to use the resonance analysis of news narrative to suggest a basis for a new theory of truth that gets beyond the more intractable metaphysical problems of classical correspondence and coherence theories without sacrificing truth to scepticism, relativism, or solipsism