The Internet is vast wonderland full of everything you could possibly imagine, and more, a lot more. One of major issues with having all of that information online is the fact that it can be tough to navigate, and even tougher to determine truth from lies and sensationalism. The news industry and educational facilities have been fighting with the Internet for years trying to help individual determine what to believe when you read it.
One of the issues with the rise of the Internet that I found most interesting and most controversial was the fact that anyone can post just about anything on the Internet without any sort of need for verification. In chapter 10 Rodman wrote about this posing a few issues about "internet self-regulation" and giving a short blip about what sorts of things to look for when determining the reliability of information that one might read over the Internet. But an issue that I think wasn't fully brought to light was how this can effect the journalist. In a world where anyone can edit a video down to a few short sound bytes (as was done with the Youtube video that launched into question Barack Obama's pastor's hatred for America) or Photoshop a picture from Iraq to look like soldiers are dancing over dead civilians (don't look for it), one has to ask whether or not the Internet is harming journalists who seek to report the truth. It only takes one short video taken from a cell phone to ruin someone's reputation, and whether or not that video is telling the truth cannot be verified. Journalists are at the very least stuck chasing ghosts that can be created using PhotoShop and a little bit of know-how. The Internet from this perspective, does not report accurately or fairly, and is too open for anyone to create scandal and cause trouble however they see fit.
The easy solution to this type of problem is pretty simple but highly controversial, restrict content that can be uploaded and viewed on the Internet. Its controversial because such a thing would restrict individual freedoms to expression and because doing so would create a control system over something that ought not be controlled. I think that there should not be restriction over the use of the Internet, but I can certainly see when reading the news why it might be a thorn in the side of every journalist who wants to report honest and timely news that it we might be better off restricting it to those who are accountable for their actions.
Pregnancy in the media
17 years ago
3 comments:
It's definitely agreeable in that certain places (maybe even households) would benefit from content filtering, but the issue underlying this is that you would have to play a game using the process of elimination plus constantly follow up no newer content that may find ways to slip past the borders. Even the famed Net Nanny has had issues with blocking simple porn. However, you can still block certain majorities of content for work places/schools enough to at least stave off potentially damaging and/or wasteful use.
However, this part is the real problem:
"It only takes one short video taken from a cell phone to ruin someone's reputation, and whether or not that video is telling the truth cannot be verified."
Sensationalism almost always turns the context of said video/picture evidence into something particularly ugly. Hiding behind the first amendment just to lay out a money-making story is a low and despicable factor of yellow journalism especially, as you said, as it lies on the moralistic line of freedom or abuse.
Good analysis. Media literacy is the skill that modern people definitely need, but it doesn't mean we have 100% freedom online. I agree with the point that the internet use shouldn't have any restrictions; we may increase punishmet for an internet crime.
In my opinion, I feel that although there is a lot of information that is not credibly and accurate on the internet, there should still be no regulation of the internet because that would arguably infringe on First Amendment rights. I do, however, feel that websites that want credibility to their name and the information they provide should be approved by credible sources and labeled as a credible and accurate website. Web surfers should have the right to know what websites are providing accurate information, and the content of websites should be approved before being labeled a credible and reliable source.
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