I am not blogging around Samsung product commercial, I put this funny clip on the top of this blog is just because it is precisely expressing my personal feeling about today’s online media, which is you can never know the authentic thing behind the information provided online, it is irresponsible and trustless. In other word, it is difficult for online audiences to tell which information and story merits their trust. And I attribute this phenomenon on excessive development of online media. Online media changes the traditional information dissemination model and also sets a stage for ordinary people to share and spread their own thoughts and information. However, as the saying goes, every coin has two sides, this is also applies to online media. With the rapid development of online media, an increasing number of celebrities, professional people and even ordinary people participate in online media. For instance, some parenting specialist teach primary parenting techniques online through their blogs, and some beauty experts create particular sites to pass their beauty experience to their audiences. I have to say these free online information are convenient for audiences, but how reliable and useful those information are, because no one can verify their authenticity.
I used to believe all or most of the information I saw from online media, the reason why I started to question its reliability is because I have personally experienced the sufferings brought by fake information that online media provided.
The first one is a tragedy happened on myself. I used to enjoy trying the online health and beauty tips that been widely reposted. Once, I saw a thousands-reposted blog telling how to use salt-contained water to clean your intestine. It provided very detailed procedures and some practical experience as well, it looks so effective. So I decided to clean my intestine according to that method. The primary procedure of that method is drinking four liters water that contains salt in two hours. I was supposed to eliminate the stool during drinking salt-contained water, but I did not, so I did not stop drinking until I felt dizzy and nausea. I felt regret about I did not drink them all and I insisted that results intestine method ineffective. I did not realize that intestine clean method is harmful until a doctor told me that drinking large amounts salt-contained water in short time would easily cause toxic reaction. I was really angry because of original blogger’s irresponsible behavior, also, I worried about the audiences who have tried this method. This experience was not only hurt my body, but also collapsed the online credibility that I always believed.
The second unreliable online information I have seen is about one of my closest friend. He was a normal university student with ordinary background, but his life was influenced badly over a period of time because of a fake entertainment online news. That breaking news intended to uncover the son of a famous actor in China, but my friend’s photos have been attached by mistake due to my friend has the same name with that actor’s son. After that, a large number of my friend’s photos have been published, almost are stolen from his social network. After I saw what my friend had suffered, I started to doubt that how many news I saw online was real, because I cannot see the truth behind the news just like the other audiences would never know that my friend had been exposed wrongly.
From an ethical perspective, ensuring the information’s authenticity is a great responsibility that each online information provider should carry out (Hayes, Singer & Ceppos, 2007). But there are still some online information providers ignore the ethic, because they do not care what effect they will bring to audiences and people involved in published materials. That is an extremely irresponsible behavior. It even caused a crisis of confidence about online media. According to a recent survey from American various local and national media, less than 30% of the respondents believed all or most of what it reported, and over 18% of respondents believed nothing (Pew Research Center, 2006b). The respondents and me have the same confusion about online media, anything I can trust? Who should I trust?
I think it is a high time to strictly regulate the online media as well as information providers, and regain the trust from audiences.
Reference List
Hayes, AS, Singer, JB and Ceppos, J 2007, ‘Shifting Roles, Enduring Values: The Credible Journalist in the Digital Age’, Journal of Mass Media Ethics, vol.22, no.4, pp.262-79
Pew Research Center for the People and Press 2006, Online papers modestly newspaper readership: No outlet stands out as most reliable, viewed 13rd August 2013, <http://people-press.org/reports/display.phy3?PageID>
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