(Mis/dis,mal)Information Revisited…
Readings first-
This week especially had a lot of readings, and to be honest I did not get through all of them. I picked the ones I found most interesting and started reading them in the break between lecture and tutorial. The first reading talked about the author having Internet access since the age of 13 and how it has shaped their life and the connections they made. the author found themselves thinking if they wanted their children to have such access from a young age, keeping in mind the opportunities it might bring too. This got me thinking about whether I would want my kids to have smartphones and such exposure to the online world…but I did not come to a decisive answer. This says a lot.
The other reading was kind of funny. It was about a Chinese full-time housewife who published over 200 articles over 10 years on Chinese Wikipedia about Russian history. Sorry, fictional history. She had an avid interest in fiction and turned to Wikipedia to publish articles that the whole world could see. Millions of words over 10 years on fictional history which countess people would have just thought as real if they did not read deeper and fact check. This reinforces my belief that Wikipedia is not a reliable source and why professors don’t want us going there for academic work.
Next was the reading about how adults under 30 are now almost as likely to trust information from social media sites as they are to trust information from national news outlets. As much as it saddens me to read this (because I do that too), I started to think about the ethical responsibilities content creators have. they have the power to reach millions of people through their content, so they should fact-check their stories and spread true information without biases. Or at least reveal that this is a biased piece of work and is to be taken with a grain of salt.
Lastly, there was a reading about Tom Cruise’s deepfakes and how people are using AI and other tech to duplicate other people’s voices and faces online. Scary. Sounds like a piece right out of Black Mirror.
Onto the process on my website-
Over the last couple of months, we have learned a lot in class and I have had the time to explore tens of plugins to add to my website. These vary from accessibility, SEO purposes, creating content, and live editing of my website. Taking a break from plugins and different tools, I have decided to concentrate more on the content I publish and how it may come off to the reader.
We learned more about falsified info online and how we can spot them. Misinformation, disinformation, and malformation are terms I didn’t know had different meanings, and I was quite interested in learning more about these terms in class this week. This got me thinking about how I should be more mindful of what I publish and the ethical responsibilities that I should be mindful of. As I publish content about big phone companies, I should cite my sources, give credit to experts, and make sure my facts are true. I do not want to be flagged for copyright issues or for misinformation even by mistake. Since the start, I have been thinking about how my website is just something I do for my class, but it is easily accessible on the internet to anyone in the world, so I should be more mindful in case it reaches a larger audience.
That’s it for now, stay tuned for more!
