Is the truth subjective? A Nigerian answer on the internet.
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One of five answers to a bounty-board question put to people on the street in Nigeria and Kenya: has the internet made it easier or harder to get access to the truth? This one refuses the premise before answering it.
The reporter sets up the frame, poidh, “a platform where people can put up different challenges and questions for the community to answer,” and asks. The answer starts with a distinction most people skip. “It’s interesting because the truth is a subjective format. The truth is anything that is set forth by a person. You can tell me your truth, but your truth is not my truth.”
On that reading the internet has not made truth easier or harder, it has multiplied the versions. What comes next is a working method rather than a complaint: take everything with a pinch of salt, hear both parties, and look for what holds. “Piece It Out What Is Consistent What Is Not Consistent And From There You Are Able To Now Piece Your Own Truth.”
The conclusion is the opposite of cynicism. “So for me, it’s the internet has given me consistency and I discover the truth.”
Ninety seconds, one voice, filmed for the We Them Media field network in Nigeria and commissioned through the bounty board. The reporter does not give a name on tape; the other four answers to the same question, two from Lagos and two from Nairobi, are on the site.