Justin Enriquez

Brit. Lit. /Comp.

Blog on “The Facts of Media Life”

7 October 2013

Do Quotations Represent Phrases as Truth?

            Not long ago writers respected quotation marks as a tool to represent truth. Before various elements of media shaped and deconstructed the original use of quotation marks, they were used in order to show truth exemplifying real life events in which writers included in their work to portray what writers were both writing and arguing about. Now, quotation marks are utilized to grab the attention of the subjects they are being presented to. For example, I know for a fact that when I’m reading an article on the web or magazine the phrases that are encapsulated with quotes are what grasp most of my attention. Therefore, now writers use quotes in order to publicize their ideas in a more effective way regardless of the absence of truth within the phrase. According to Max Frankel, this is the norm of various journalists now days, to inform their audiences of events in a more fascinating way rather than a truthful manner, and consequently various journalists have lost their occupations due to their dishonest media influenced ways of presenting truth. Therefore, before one can argue their position on quotation marks being a tool to grasp attention rather than representing truth, one must first observe the purpose of why media is interpreted the way it is and even more so what is the real role of journalists.

            Today, quotation marks are utilized as a way to separate what an author has said from the rest of his/her work in order for it to be easily understood for the reader. By rule, however, quotations are used or should be used to represent truth that will either affect the reader or add on to the topic the author is trying to represent. In addition, they play a role in representing how journalists should carry themselves. This is, presenting information in an honest manner but simultaneously keeping audiences returning to their news stations for more. Consequently, the truth is inevitably bent due to the polishing up of facts in order for them to be presented to the audience in a more attractive way. Therefore, I applaud Frank McCourt’s refusal to use quotations because it shows the role he has, in this case, as an author rather than journalist and accordingly respects its original guideline as a tool to represent truth instead of encapsulating uncertain phrases corresponding with uncertain events of his childhood with quotations. Unlike McCourt, both journalists and authors have ignored their original role of presenting the truth by way of quotations and substituted it with using it as a way to publicize their “facts” in a more attractive way thus attracting more audiences for their own benefits.