I do fairly well as a pro blogger, but I’ve made the “Internet source” mistake and been bitten. Usually this happens to me because I’m trying to save time. I’ll have access to a primary source due to my position in the industry I cover, but just don’t take the time to go there. Over the last year I’ve worked really hard on my self discipline in this area, and things have gone much better. But it’s a constant battle because secondary sources on the web are so easy, and time is so limited.

People who edit wikipedia sometimes have their own agenda and remove information that conflict with it.

Great example is wikipedia, it is a reliable source of information..An encyclopedia on the net indeed!

I think we, as a consuming culture, will need to adjust how we ingest and process information: we must always check, attribute, or simply hold fewer things as “hard fact” as we go about our daily business.

But incumbent upon bloggers, just as with newspeople, is the responsibility to stop the dissemination of incorrect information. Difficult task, but not impossible.

And for “The Mother” – I loved your reply. Atilla the Hun would have been proud to know his historic words were preserved…

Everyone else—such considered and varied opinions are a treasure!

mkp
ontext.com

Yes, you are right. Before posting some thing in the web, It’s very important to make sure that whether the information is right or wrong or it’s a rumor or a false statement from the wrong person. It would be better and important to confirm from the primary source that we are posting something accurate.

Thanks
Sankar

Great example is wikipedia, it is a reliable source of information..An encyclopedia on the net indeed!

Correct me if i’m wrong :)

I think it is kinda funny so many reporters got bamboozled my this fellow, how on earth did someone figure it out, or did the guy say “”oh yeah, I made that up.”"

Most things are skewed anyway no matter where you get the information from. I think unless you see it first hand, you really can’t ever expect to know what ‘really’ happened.

Then came the internet. In 5 seconds, one can find virtually everything ever written on a topic. The problem is whether or not what you find is worth the electrons it’s written in.

I taught debate and rhetoric for a time to a junior high school class. My hardest job was teaching them to respect sources.

Favorite story: one kid presented a talk on Atilla the Hun. A remarkable leader from an illiterate society, he didn’t leave much written information behind. But this young man gave QUOTES. From a website named “Realm of Shades.”

You can imagine how much fun I had with that one.

The sad thing is that this is exactly what informs the pseudoscience and alternative medicine movements. It’s what makes it possible for Jenny McCarthy to convince moms not to vaccinate their kids for preventable diseases.

And MANY bloggers fall into the trap of not verifying their sources, making the proliferation of pseudoscience even easier.

As a scientist, I use the internet but I always go directly to PubMed and use the primary scientific literature as my source for content. Since I know what is actually going on, I am frequently shocked by the poor reporting done by major news outlets like CNN and the New York Times.

The worst is that when other bloggers read and report from these “authority” sources they are just spreading the false information.

Thank you for alerting bloggers to these issues.