Venezuelan journalists fight against slander and half-truths

Caracas, June 27 (RHC)-- Venezuela has been the victim of unprecedented attacks in the economic and political sphere, for which the media have been used as tools and weapons of war.

Every June 27th is the National Day of the Journalist, in commemoration of the creation of the newspaper El Correo del Orinoco, founded by the liberator Simón Bolívar in 1818 and considered the most important newspaper of Venezuela's independence.

A report aired by teleSUR, based in Caracas, says that journalism has a great impact on the masses and journalists must be guarantors of informing through reliable news, presenting developments and critical analysis of the facts.    

In Venezuela, journalism has become a laboratory of "post-truths," each media according to its editorial line and belief reports what it considers "correct and beneficial," leaving aside the realities that are the heart of the existence of these media.  

The so-called "post-truth" could be defined as a lie, half-truth, gossip, hoax and slander, aggrandized by the greatest propulsive force ever known, and one of the strongest communicational weapons of the 21st century: the social networks.  This allows the expression of entrenched beliefs and convictions, based on emotion, which are not backed up by evidence and objective facts.

These theories or ideas or "truths" -- combined with social networks (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp, among others) -- become a poison that spreads dangerously throughout the world in a matter of seconds. 

The report by teleSUR points out that post-truth applied to an idea makes the certain and the uncertain indistinguishable, as it wraps everything in the same mass, targeting an audience to evade responsibility for the true reality. 

The international analyst, José Steinsleger, indicates that the media ravages of post-truth began in America when the enlightened oligarchies distorted and silenced the causes of the Paraguayan genocide (1864-70).  Or when Spain set up the first concentration camps in Cuba (1895-98), a model of extermination that the Nazis perfected with known results.

He points out that for years, and intended as an instrument of manipulation, "post-truth was put at the service of lies: false rumors that become important news topics, analysts and experts who manage perceptions and beliefs through techniques that strategically spread rumors and slander (microtargeting), search engine rankings based on what an algorithm thinks the users of a medium want."

During the revolutionary process in Venezuela, the Latin American country has been the victim of unprecedented attacks in the economic and political sphere, for which the media have been instrumentalized.

This war of post-truths led by the United States against Venezuela seeks a change of government, which is promoted through a huge media campaign.

Experts urge the media, journalists and social network managers to transmit truths and reliabe information through these media, strengthening the political institutions which defend the self-determination of the peoples.