There was always someone deciding what the public did or didn’t see, it’s just a different someone now.
The difference is with the internet you have the ability to instantly verify information, but most choose not to and instead just let their information be served. Its not that black and white, but most people are gonna believe what’s served to them without much question, especially if it reinforces a bias.
The difference is with the internet you have the ability to instantly verify information
This is missing a lot of nuance. Let’s face it, verifying information on the Internet is not only a learned skill, it also takes time to do, particularly when it’s the latest news with very limited available information.
Granted, we are usually talking about 10-30 minutes of time, depending on what you’re verifying. But let’s not pretend it’s instant or even necessarily easy. There’s a lot of information to sift through, and if you aren’t practiced in spotting misinformation (and even sometimes if you are) you won’t know to reject some of it off hand.
I don’t blame people for not knowing they should verify news. I do blame people who believe everything they want to hear, and none of what they don’t.
There was always someone deciding what the public did or didn’t see, it’s just a different someone now.
The difference is with the internet you have the ability to instantly verify information, but most choose not to and instead just let their information be served. Its not that black and white, but most people are gonna believe what’s served to them without much question, especially if it reinforces a bias.
This is missing a lot of nuance. Let’s face it, verifying information on the Internet is not only a learned skill, it also takes time to do, particularly when it’s the latest news with very limited available information.
Granted, we are usually talking about 10-30 minutes of time, depending on what you’re verifying. But let’s not pretend it’s instant or even necessarily easy. There’s a lot of information to sift through, and if you aren’t practiced in spotting misinformation (and even sometimes if you are) you won’t know to reject some of it off hand.
I don’t blame people for not knowing they should verify news. I do blame people who believe everything they want to hear, and none of what they don’t.