The First Half of Oprah Winfrey’s Speech at USC Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism’s 2018 Commencement

"So, today I have some good news and some bad news for anybody who intends to build a life around your ability to communicate. I want to get the bad news out first. Everything around us, including and in particular, the Internet and social media is now being used to erode trust. In our institutions, interfere in our elections, and wreak havoc on our infrastructure. It hands advertisers a map to our deepest desires. It enables misinformation to run rampant, attention spans to run short and false stories from phony sites to run circles around major news outlets.

We have literally walked into traffic while staring at our phones.

Now the good news. Many of your parents are probably taking you somewhere special for dinner tonight. I can do a little better than that. Now that I've presented some of the bad news, the good news is that there really is a solution. And the solution is each and every one of you. Because you will become the new editorial gatekeepers, an ambitious army of truth seekers, who will arm yourselves with the intelligence and the insight and the facts necessary to strike down deceit.

You're in a position to keep all of those who now disparage real news, you all are the ones who are going to keep those people in check. Why? Because you can push back and you can answer false narratives with real information and set the record straight. And you also have the ability and the power to give voice to people who desperately now need to tell stories and have their stories told.

And this is what I do know, for sure, because I've been doing it a long time. If you can capture the humanity of people, if you could just capture the humanity of the people--of the stories you're telling, you then get that much closer to your own humanity and you can confront your bias and you can build your credibility and hone your instincts and compound your compassion. You could use your gifts to illuminate the darkness in our world.

So this is what I also know. This moment in time? This is your time to rise. It is. Even though--you can't go anywhere. You can't stand in line at Starbucks, you can't go to a party, you can't go anyplace without...everywhere you turn, people are talking about how bad things are how terrible it is. This is what I know. The problem is, everybody is meeting hysteria with more hysteria. And then we just are all becoming hysterical, and it's getting worse.

What I've learned all these years is we're not supposed to match it, or even get locked into resisting, or pushing against it. We're supposed to see this moment in time for what it is. We're supposed to see through it, and then transcend it. That is how you overcome hysteria. And that is how you overcome the sniping at one another, the trolling, the mean-spirited partisanship on both sides of the aisle. The divisiveness, the injustice and the out and out hatred.

You use it. You use this moment to encourage you, to embolden you, and to literally push you into the rising of your life. And to borrow a phrase from my beloved #mentor Maya Angelou, 'Just like moons and like suns, with the certainty of tides. Just like the hopes springing high,' you will rise.

So your job now, let me tell you, is to take everything you've learned to challenge the left, to challenge the right, and the center. When you see something, you say something and say it with the facts and the reporting to back it up.

Here's what you have to do, you make the choice every day. Every single day to exemplify honesty because the truth, let me tell you something about the truth. The truth exonerates and convicts. It disinfects and it galvanizes. The truth has always been and will always be our shield against corruption. Our shield against greed and despair. The truth is our saving grace.

And not only are you here, USC Annenberg, to tell it, to write it, to proclaim it, to speak it; but to be it. Be the truth. Be the truth."