The Views of Online Media Journalists About Implementation of the Truth Principle in Covering Event of 212 Reunion

摘要

In journalistic practice, the meaning of the truth is debatable. It is something absurd because it can be interpreted differently depending on the needs. According to Harsono in the book of "Elements of Journalism" that is written by Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel, the meaning of the truth is in the functional level, not in the level of philosophical. For example, in the daily lives people need information about traffic jam, weather forecasts, currency rates or football match. This article explores the views of three online media journalists about the implementation of the first principle of the nine element of journalism which is "the first obligation of the journalist is to the truth" when they were covering the event of reunion of 212 on December 2nd, 2018. This research implements a qualitative method by interviewing the journalists from republika.co.id, detik.com and liputan6.com. They were journalists who were assigned by their offices to cover the event. The result shows that as journalists who were on the spot of event, they would only publish news articles based on the facts they gather from the place of coverage.