Saturday, September 4, 2010
Technological Misinformation
International communication is key to creating and building solid international relations, both on the individual level and in a larger sense between businesses or governments. Without the tools of international communication mistakes and misunderstandings can occur. Sometimes these are small in scale, but often miscommunication has led to large scale problems, the most obvious of which is war. As technology has progressed, new and interesting ways to communicate globally have been created. The available outlets for communication, including television media and the internet, offer immediate information transfer and ways to respond to that information; however, these mass information-spreading tools often cause more damage than good. Information that is either falsified or has no reliable source is often found on the internet and in news programs on television. To the average viewer, this information (or misinformation) is often taken as-is which can potentially create ignorance and prejudice towards other groups or organizations shown in a (untrue) negative light in the media.
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Nanxi, you bring up a great point and this actually relates directly back to what I was discussing in my post about the CNN effect. With the rapid communications across various types of technology, unsourced references, and every sort of opinion available out there on today’s blogs, there are a wide variety of people and even companies (say, media outlets) who are not necessarily fact-checking their information before spouting off agreement or protest against it. For governments, this can definitely lead to conflict when decisions are made based on incorrect information. In any case, this certainly serve as reminder to what my mother used to always say, “Don’t believe everything you hear!” Sometimes we are guilty of relying on our communication systems to have the first and newest information that we forget to see if it is actually correct.
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