Chapter 9 blog
Nov 11th, 2008 by scastellanos
With the never-ending amount of information that is constantly at our fingertips, the pitfalls of the Internet are easy to find. Chapter 9 of “We the Media” discusses the hazards of inaccurate information and spinning the truth. Dan Gillmor discusses how anonymous sources on the Web can often be detrimental to people. For example, the instance on Amazon.com where authors were writing reviews of their own books and smack-talking other authors is an example of the kind of problems anonymity causes. I agree with Gillmor on the point that if you are going to express your opinions about something on the Internet you should be willing to say who you are. This is especially true in journalism. It not only benefits the people who are reading your work but it also legitimizes you and boosts your credibility. As Gillmor says, it is extremely important to check sources on the Web. It’s becoming easier and easier to hack into company’s Web sites and exploit valuable information. What’s even scarier is that even news Web pages are not immune to that kind of hacking. What if one day someone logs on to the New York Times Web site and a malicious hacker decided to conjure up some false information that would get out to the masses? That idea isn’t far off, and that’s the scary reality of the Internet. It was kind of amusing that Gillmor brought up the point that recently, if you typed in “miserable failure” into Google it would lead you to a biography about President Bush. I didn’t know that that technique had a name - apparently it’s called “Google bombing.” It’s true that Google is going to have to be more vigilant about these kinds of things in the future, in order to protect its credibility as a source of information. After all, what do people say when they are in need of quick, easy and “reliable” information?? Just Google it!