Each one of knows lots of things. We know our name. We know
our address. We know the sum of two plus two. However, at times people can have conflicting things they know to be true. How do we come to know things? How is it possible for different people to know different things to be true?
The two ways I can think of is through personal experience
or what we are told or taught. Each of us knows things we learned on our own. For example
stubbing your toe is painful. Knowledge like this we pick up early in life. If
you know something and you didn’t experience it yourself, someone had to tell
you. The earliest form of being told something is through our education. Where
we learned things to be true, like “dog” is spelled “d-o-g."
I would stand to believe that it's a combination of our
personal experiences and what someone tells us that assists us in determining
what is true. Taking into consideration how reliable we consider the person
telling us something.
Today while checking my Facebook news feed I came across a
post a friend of mine had shared a link via The Weather Channel, Small
Meteorite Strikes in Nicaragua’s Capital City of Managua. This particular post
caught my eye knowing that an asteroid was due to pass close to Earth over the
weekend.
In the article a Government spokeswoman, Rosaio Murillo,
said a committee formed by the government to study the event determines it was
a “relatively small” meteorite that “appears to have come off an asteroid that
was passing close to Earth.” House-sized asteroid 2014 RC, which measured 60
feet in diameter, skimmed the Earth this weekend, ABC News reports.
I determined to be true by the reliable sources were
attached to this article. These sources involved The Associated Press and The
Weather Channel. I believe that reliability is a great factor to people’s trust
in what shows up through social media to be true.
Social media can provide instant news faster than traditional news outlet or sources and can be a great wealth of information, but there is also an ever-increasing need to verify and determine accuracy of information. I believe with social media people need to be their own researcher to determine what is fact versus opinion or false.
I agree with your point about social media providing instant news faster. I will admit that I learned about the recent deaths of Joan Rivers and Robin Williams through Facebook. After reading this information on my newsfeed I then went onto other news sites to verify that these events actually had happened. I agree with what you stated that a story is more believable or credible if it has various sources linked to it and people absolutely do need to be their own researchers to ensure accuracy about what is being reported, or what they believe to be true. -Betsy Devillier
ReplyDeleteDoesn't it seem strange that we are even discussing "not to believe everything you read"? It just seems like such a common sense concept. Maybe a touch of cynicism is good for the soul. There are no right or wrong answers, except for those writers who belong to news organizations or professional associations who use a code of ethics. If someone is not publishing the truth, is it a lie or a different viewpoint? Just the "who, what, what, when and why" again, please. Either way, we are still not relieved from the duty of checking out different viewpoints, not to mention the facts. Regarding Joan Rivers or Robin Williams, it still amazes me how much of our popular culture revolves around celebrity. My question is do you think celebrity news often takes precedence over more important issues? It is just a point of discussion and nothing more.
ReplyDeleteI came across a story on Facebook posted by my girlfriend who lives in Hawaii: "A YEAR AFTER MOLASSES SPILL, DAMAGE ESTIMATES ARE STILL A SECRET". Huh? What spill? Are you kidding me...molasses...really? It could sound like a joke, however, I did some more research and it is true. It may not be oil, but apparently is is just as bad. It has killed thousands of fish and damaged coral reefs. It was 220,000 gallons of molasses and the damage amount is not totally calculated, but it is in the neighborhood of $80-400 million dollars. Yes, the Sierra Club is involved, but maybe this make strike a blow at tourism or people just won't take a story about molasses seriously? What do you think? - Debra McCormack
Debra,
DeleteI think you make a valid point about the celebrities taking precedence over other important stories. Unfortunately, our news is driven by demand and not what is important to our world. But, who are we to say what is important? We all have incredibly different opinions about what is important in our world today. One person may believe it is the celebrity who brought them laughter throughout their painful, abuse filled life. Some will say its the war on terror and homeland security. Others will believe it is the processed foods, with GMO and other additives possibly causing all sorts of diseases. The news chooses what they report by what the majority of people want to hear. There have been plenty of times when I was upset about hearing news stories about surfing dogs when I knew there were so many other stories they could discuss. This is why new media is so great for getting news stories out there. We have the ability to create our own websites and give information that we feel is important out to the public. If we advertise well and network, what you put out there may become world known. If there is a pro to new media, it is the ability to get what we want the world to know out there for everyone to see. In fact, my husband has found a website that reports news, but it is not negative story after negative story. There are a few out there. You are able to know what is going on the world without feeling depressed after watching it! If you are interested, the website is www.goodnewsnetwork.org or www.dailygood.org.
Shannon