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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Andy Thomas who wrote (135897)	4/5/2001 8:53:45 PM
From: Kevin Rose	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769667

I hate to pick on Andy, but he occassionally has some real insight. :) The internet indeed seems to have changed how we get information. But it hasn't really affected how we view that information. We were brought up thinking that something in print had to be true. Journalistic responsibilities were held in high regard; editors were (usually) very meticulous about verifying stories and making sure they weren't publishing rumors or lies (accepting the well-recognized 'trash' tabloid magazines). But now, virtually anyone can 'publish' something by creating a web page. There is not the same sense of journalism as a responsibility; people dump just about anything there. There is often no verification, and facts are regularly manufactured for convenience. I have had people shove garbage in my face, as fact, because they 'got it off the internet'. What has resulted is a lot more propaganda and lies, from many different sources and viewpoints. Many people do not realize that the source of this 'information' is often suspect. So, they make decisions based on this data; these people can be very easily manipulated into become followers of any old wacky cause. Most intelligent people I know take internet data with a grain of salt. Amongst those people, there is a lot more inquiring into the source of the data, and follow up verification. We essentially take on the role of journalistic integrity ourselves, becoming our own editors. The best informed people turn out to be the ones who know how to 'be their own editors'. It has certainly changed my attitudes towards how I should process and accept information in this Information Age.