It’s time to be TRUTHfal

‘I don’t have to tell you things are bad. We know things are bad…’

That cathartic monologue by Howard Beale, the alcoholic anchorman who cracks up on-camera in the best film ever made about broadcast news, Network (1976), has never been more relevant or resonant. Trump, Brexit, the Muslim travel ban, fake news, Isis, Putin, North Korea’s nuclear programme, student debt, no more maintenance grants, soaring rents for fleapits in Falmouth and Penryn. Who on earth is behind this bloody horror show?

Like Beale, we’re mad as hell and we’re not going to take it anymore – from any of the forces that shape, and misshape, our fragile lives. TRUTHfal is Falmouth’s antidote to fake news and the suddenly de rigueur but stupid notion that we’ve been plunged helplessly into a “post-truth” era. To see precisely what we’re doing to counter such dangerous defeatism check out our SCOOPfal and INSIGHTfal channels.

Snuggled in a thriving multimedia journalism school on a small campus in a remote corner of south Cornwall, we might not be able to do much about the madmen in the White House and the Kremlin, far less that sinister little plonker in Pyongyang, but we can make loud protesting noises if we really bash our keyboards. Geography is history in the digital age. Being located barely a stone’s throw from the Atlantic Ocean meant little in the analogue age, but if we cast our pebbles into cyberspace, who knows what ripples we might generate on the other side of the Pond or the other side of the planet? Certainly it’s our aim to get you thinking in THOUGHTfal.

Journalism also has to be joyous, of course, so we’ll be having plenty of fun on this site as well, supplying comprehensive and incisive coverage of the whole wide world of sport and digital games on PLAYfal.

Spotlighting all that is worth savouring and celebrating in Cornwall’s cultural and creative hub – food, fashion, entertainment and lifestyle – is the purpose of EVENTfal and ZESTfal.

And we’re not just enlightening and entertaining you with our wise and witty words but also through sound and vision. TRUTHfal is a multimedia smorgasbord, serving up an endless stream of podcasts and video packages for your enjoyment. To see and hear what we mean, cock you ears to EARfal and fix your eyes on WATCHfal.

I honestly and sincerely hope many of you will be moved to express your feelings and give us your frank and fearless feedback in the comment section below each posting. If you are so inclined, the invitation is the same to one and all. Go for it – and them!

ROB BROWN
Head of Journalism
Falmouth University

Our commitment to Ethical Journalism

We take seriously our obligation to maintain high standards of journalism. We consider the Independent Press Standards Organisation (“IPSO”) Editors’ Code of Practice to be a sound statement of ethical behaviour for journalists. All our journalists are required to adhere to that Code, and to apply the principles embedded in the OfCom Broadcasting Code where appropriate to our broadcast reporting.