Information Overload - Deciding What is True

With the ability of anyone to have Internet access comes the ability for anyone to post information on the Internet. This has created a new necessary skill which is for people to be able to distinguish what is true and what is not true on the Internet. This becomes particularly difficult considering that even news stories that are reported on the Internet are not always reliable (Gunter et al., 2009). From journalists, to anyone reading news information posted in the Internet, it has become a necessary skill to be able to check the sources that are posting that information (Gunter et al., 2009). There are so many ways that people can post information that may or may not be true. A prime example of this is blogs. Blogs have been a result of new technology. Many people do post true and factual information on blogs, but how does one go about establishing if a blog’s information is true and factual (Gunter et al., 2009)? This is where the new skill sets come in.

            For example, this blog post itself could be false, perhaps what is being written about is not accurate information, even though it is presented as such. What would be necessary for readers to substantiate the claims made in this post would be to research the topic, and read the sources referenced in this blog (Gunter et al., 2009). These are all news skills that have to be learned by any communication professional and any person that wants to know the facts of an idea.

            Before the technological age when a newspaper was the only way that people could receive the news, there was no need to fact check what was being written about (Kolodzy, 2013). Furthermore, even if people did want to fact check what was being written about, there really was not a way to do that (Kolodzy, 2013). Now, though, different information can be given to different parts of the world (Sylvie & Chyi, 2007). Because of that, it has become a necessary skill for people to fact check the information that they are given (Sylvie & Chyi, 2007). This is particularly necessary for those in the communication field, such as journalists, whose careers rely on the factual information that they post.

            It is extremely easy for false information to circulate on the Internet, so being able to establish what is true and what is false is a necessary skill.

References:

Gunter, B., Campbell, V., Touri, M., & Gibson, R. (2009). Blogs, news and credibility. Aslib Proceedings, 61(2), 185-204.

Kolodzy, J. (2013). Practicing convergence journalism. New York, NY: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group.

Sylvie, G., & Chyi, H. I. (2007). One product, two markets: How geography differentiates online newspaper audiences. Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, 84(3), 562-581.

This infograph covers information about social media. It is particularly interesting to see the information about blogging and other types of social media used by companies.

This infograph shows who bloggers are. It also shows how many of them are blogging for fun or professionally.

References:

 

Goodwill Community Foundation (2014). What is a blog? GCF Learn Free. Retrieved from http://www.gcflearnfree.org/blogbasics/1.2

Van Den Beld, B. (2011). The future of marketing: Blogging and social media. State of Digital. Retrieved from http://www.stateofdigital.com/the-future-of-marketing-blogging-and-social-media/