Lab+9



The highly successful dissemination of the word "truthiness" attests to the power of media and media figures. Steven Colbert has long been a popular media figure since he left John Stewart's Daily Show and started the Colbert Report. His over-the-top arrogant persona and highly political rhetoric has won him millions of fans and he is culpable for undermining several political figureheads with his witty satire. "Truthiness" is a word that emerged when he "was stuck on what term to feature for the inaugural segment of 'The Word,' a spoof of Bill O’Reilly’s 'Talking Points'" (Zimmer). "Truth" was the original word that was meant to be featured in the segment, however, Colbert felt it wasn't "dumb enough", and so emerged the sillier sounding word, "truthiness".

The integration of the word //truthiness// into regular conversation is a testament to the current state of our politics and our lack of faith in everyday rhetoric. Consequently, the "iness" of the word has been attached to many others to produce terms such as "fame-iness", "referenciness" and "proofiness". I think that this uncertainty that has been attached to so many words that are meant to describe solid things such as "truth", "reference" and "proof" is a reflection of the uncertainty of the conditions of society and the political processes that control our lives. Colbert's position in the media as a comedic political pundit not only legitimizes the word "truthiness" but also enables its usage to catch on with his audience in a half-jokingly, half-serious manner. Further, the word's success through its popularization in the media has been bolstered by its recognition as the "2005 Word of the Year", through which it beat out words such as "podcast" and "sudoku".

Although it sounds silly, the reality is that "truthiness" is increasingly becoming a regular word in our vocabulary. I think that the media played a significant role in solidifying "truthiness"'s position in the English language, however, I think that the success of the word is more largely due to the fact that "truth" is being challenged in so many ways these days in society. The media has created this issue in our society where it has become hard to discern what is the "truth", what are the "facts" and how they have been manipulated so that we think in a certain way. I believe that it is more often than not, more appropriate to use a word that reflects the uncertainty and subjectivity of the word "truth" by replacing it with "truthiness".