Discerning the Truth in the Era of Unrestricted Web Publishing

Today I read an article from the New York Times by Somini Sengupta entitled, "Ebola Presents Challenge, and an Opportunity, for U.N. Leader." The article focused on how U.N. secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, is taking steps to help the U.N. play a greater role in the ebola epidemic, while at the same time pointing out the U.N.'s limitations in this humanitarian endeavor. The article drew on multiple sources which consisted of leading experts in the fields of international relations and humanitarian crises. These sources included Jean-Marie Guehenno (president of International Crisis Group), Margaret Chan (director general of the World Health Organization), and Samantha Power (American ambassador to the U.N.). With the exception of Samantha Power, I had not been familiar with many of the experts who were cited in the article, so I did a quick Google search of their names and was able to find multiple other sources that could corroborate their positions and credentials. All of the sources the author used were highly credible owing to the credentials they possessed and the experience they had in international humanitarian crises of similar size and scope as the current ebola epidemic.

While the article contained comments from leading experts in the field, I was unable to find an actual list of sources that could help verify that the comments included in the article were in fact what each expert actually said. While the New York Times has a relatively positive reputation with regard to its reporting, this still shows how in a world of unrestricted Web publishing, a comment from a source could potentially be modified or taken out of context, and the audience would have little way of knowing. Without an actual list of sources detailing who said what and when, the audience simply has to put their trust in the credibility of the author and the reputation of the news source, which falls short of what is needed to determine whether a piece of information is in fact true.

References

Sengupta, S. (2014, September 19). Ebola presents challenge, and an opportunity, for U.N. leader. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/19/world/africa/ebola-presents-challenge-and-an-opportunity-for-un-leader.html?ref=world&_r=0

A New Way of Knowing

I know the things I know through a combination of life experiences, my education, and the various forms of media I consume on a daily basis. I would differentiate between things "I do know," due to their being corroborated by multiple sources/experiences, and things "I think I know" by virtue of the fact that I have not yet come across an additional source or had an experience that can be used to confirm or deny their validity. However, irrespective of what I know or just think I know, I am a believer in the Socratic principle that true wisdom/knowledge can only be gained if I operate under the assumption that I know nothing, and I do my best to approach life in that way.

One new thing I learned from social media today was how sugar activates the same receptors in the brain as cocaine and how the excess sugar in American foods is creating an epidemic health crisis. This information came from a movie trailer for a documentary called "Fed Up," that one of my Facebook Friends had posted. Although there were limited details on the production of the documentary and the sources/methodology that was used, the information presented seemed to be credible owing to the various subject matter experts in the field as well as health conscious public figures such as former President Bill Clinton who were seen giving interviews throughout the trailer. The professional backgrounds of these individuals seemed to allude to the documentary's credibility as a viable source of information regarding America's poor nutrition practices and the impending health ramifications.

While there is certainly a great deal of misinformation that easily gets circulated on social media sites, social media can be a reliable source of information if we use it as our means to connect to credible news sites and well-established organizations and companies. We may not be able to completely control the information we receive through social media sites, but we can at least tailor our use of these sites to make sure that they can work to our advantage. Taking measures to filter what information we allow to populate on our social media pages can make social media sites not only a valuable source of accurate information, but a highly efficient one as well. 

The Influences of New Media

The forms of new media that I use on a daily basis are primarily social networking sites such as Facebook as well as various miscellaneous online forums that pertain to a particular subject I may be interested in or that I am seeking to gain more knowledge on. With a seemingly constant information flow of major events, stories, and ideas being spread by an ever growing number of people, I have learned to take every piece of digital information I see with a grain of salt instead of blindly accepting it at face value.  I view the information I consume not necessarily as the truth, but rather as a small piece of a complex puzzle that will ultimately help lead me to the truth. For the most part, new media has been a positive influence, in that it allows for an incredible variety of perspectives and facilitates open dialogue. This serves to create a greater number of puzzle pieces that can be used to construct an even more detailed account of the truth. However, new media does have the potential to negatively influence us. As easy as new media has made it for people to rapidly disseminate accurate, factual information, it has made it just as easy for people to disseminate biased, falsified information.  The trouble arises when we act on such false information as if it were the truth, which can result in anything ranging from internal societal divisions, to major geopolitical upheavals. In the age of new media, we must strive to seize the many blessings it offers while staying on guard of its potential to become a curse should we fail to develop ourselves into a media literate citizenry.