science

Truthdig

Truthdig is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Truthdig rather than just read about it. In short: Truthdig is an American alternative news website that provides a mix of long-form articles, blog items, curated links, interviews, arts criticism, and commentary on current events that is delivered from a politically progressive, left-leaning point of view. The site focuses on major "digs" that purport to look beneath headlines to reveal facts overlooked or not reported by mainstream media.

Key takeaways

Truthdig belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Truthdig to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Truthdig from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Truthdig is an American alternative news website that provides a mix of long-form articles, blog items, curated links, interviews, arts criticism, and commentary on current events that is delivered from a politically progressive, left-leaning point of view. The site focuses on major "digs" that purport to look beneath headlines to reveal facts overlooked or not reported by mainstream media. Truthdig was co-founded in 2005 by Zuade Kaufman and Robert Scheer, who served as editor-in-chief. As of 2014, the Truthdig site drew more than 400,000 visitors per month.

History Kaufman began her journalism career at KCET in Los Angeles, initially working on documentaries before transitioning to print journalism. She collaborated with Scheer on hyperlocal editions at the Los Angeles Times , Westside, Weekly, and Our Times, starting as a researcher and then as a staff reporter. After the newspaper changed ownership and eliminated these local editions, Kaufman pursued a master's degree in journalism at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. She began developing Truthdig while at USC, and it launched immediately after Scheer was fired from the Los Angeles Times. On March 11, 2020, nine employees of Truthdig signed a statement announcing a work stoppage to protest what they described as "unfair labor conditions and the effort by the publisher, Zuade Kaufman, to remove the site's founding Editor-in-Chief and co-owner Robert Scheer". On March 27, 2020 Kaufman responded in an open letter that attributed the matter to "negotiations to end the business partnership" between her and Scheer. On March 25, 2020 Truthdig employees received emails they characterized as "Truthdig LLC was being dissolved and that our positions at the publication had been terminated". According to the full statement, 15 employees would be affected. The "Truthdig" website concomitantly posted an announcement that "Truthdig" was "going on a hiatus". On 1 November 2022, the website was relaunched without Scheer's involvement.

Contributors Significant contributors to Truthdig have included Bill Blum, Noam Chomsky, Juan Cole, animator Mark Fiore, Amy Goodman, Sam Harris, Chris Hedges, Kamin Mohammadi, Greg Palast, Carrie Rickey, Émile P. Torres, and Gore Vidal. In October 2006, Truthdig published an essay entitled, "After Pat's Birthday", about the death of the NFL player and American soldier Pat Tillman that was written by his brother Kevin. The essay was widely distributed and was cited in The New York Times and the Associated Press.

Reception and awards Truthdig has been used as a data source in communication studies research on systematic differences in coverage of political events by alternative media (such as Truthdig) versus mainstream media. In 2015, an Association for Computing Machinery conference paper determined that users of the NewsTrust website considered Truthdig a "most trusted" political news source with a "left" viewpoint. As of 2024, Truthdig has won six Webby Awards, four awards from the Society of Professional Journalists, and forty first-place awards from the Los Angeles Press Club, among others. At the 2010 ceremony for the Webby Awards, which traditionally limit acceptance speeches to five words, Robert Scheer accepted on behalf of Truthdig, saying: "Wall Street—what fucking thieves."

See also Independent media Watchdog journalism

References

External links Official website Truthdig on YouTube.com

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Truthdig

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Truthdig claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Truthdig before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Truthdig ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Truthdig

In research: Truthdig appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Truthdig in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Truthdig is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics American news websites, Broadcasting websites, Citizen journalism, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Truthdig outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Truthdig in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Truthdig means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Truthdig out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Truthdig in simple terms?

Why does Truthdig matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Truthdig?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Truthdig.