Is public argument truth? Does it encompass that which is true or in accordance with fact or reality. Well it would depend on whose reality you wanted to go with. The online article "We are indeed less willing to agree on what constitutes truth" by Clay Shirky addresses Shirky's beliefs that "the Internet allows us to see what other people actually think" and then proceeds to foretell our future.
Can the internet allow us to see what people think? In general I would say yes, people are posting their thoughts, their beliefs, and sometimes their rage. But it really depends, both on the person who is posting (some are good at hiding their thoughts) and on the readers perception (some people can't see their way out of a paper bag).
The internet is truly filled with information. Today you can easily find the average weight of a female chimpanzee, or reviews of restaurants in a nearby town. The amount of factual information that is available to us today at the touch of our fingers is amazing. And even the infamous comment section, be it on youtube, or a news site, can hold gems, great historical debates, a statement that props up your flagging belief in the good of humanity, or just those that reaffirm your belief that society is doomed.
But what of "objective" media in an online world? The truth is that it is still a work in progress. I agree that we can't go back to how it was back in the day of Walter Cronkite. But as I see it we don't yet have a clear view on where we want to go. I don't believe as Shirky does that the new media needs to be "more willing to attack other outlets for ethical lapses in public", but I do believe they need to have a set of ethics. And I believe more and more people are becoming aware of a new need for the people who are making our online news sites or informative blogs to learn to understand information credibility and accept their role as todays journalist with the accompanying journalist ethics (Bartlett).
But will tomorrow's media and news really be a dog eat dog world were only the most factual and ruthless will thrive? I sure hope not.
Resources:
- Bartlett, Jamie. "The Strengths and Weakness of Social Media." Audio blog post. Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. University of Oxford, 9 September 2013. http://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/strengths-and-weaknesses-social-media. 19 October 2016.
- Shirky, Clay. "We are indeed less willing to agree on what constitutes truth." The Poynter Institute. 17 October 2012. http://www.poynter.org/news/mediawire/191757/shirky-we-are-indeed-less-willing-to-agree-on-what-constitutes-truth/. Accessed 24 October 2016.
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