Blog Post #3 - Create a new entry using Blogger. Choose an online news article published by Time, The New York Times, or The Huffington Post and track its cited sources. Visit each source online and evaluate its credibility based on the guidelines set in Criteria to Evaluate the Credibility of WWW Resources. Draft a blog post that briefly states a potential impact of unrestricted web publishing through mass media as it relates to this article.
Scrolling through Huffingtonpost.com, I went to my main interest, the health tab. This brought up a few articles, but I decided on "Are Positive People Really Healthier?". This article talked about positivity and health, how they're related and if positive thinking can really keep you healthy. This was a post taken from MensJournal.com. While this website itself isn't necessarily "reliable", the article itself cited some very credible sources. These sources ranged from PubMed, which is part of the U.S National Library of Medicine and National Institutes of Health, Harvard.edu and the Mayo Clinic. I also searched for the professor cited in the beginning and he was a credible, psychology professor from Loyola University. Overall, this article was credible and gave good, scientific information to back up their claim.
Once I found the original article, it was easy to locate the sources cited. In the post from Huffingtonpost.com it wasn't as clear where the information was coming from. The article talked a lot about research but there wasn't any way to locate the research from the article. This was only possible once I found my way to Mensjournal.com. In this case it was all reliable information, but it could have easily been information pulled from random sources out of context and misconstrued. If this article had gone the way the title made it seem, asking "Are Positive People Really Healthier?", and they talked about how this was not true, they could have easily written a similar article without sources and it wouldn't be much different. Not having the sources readily available makes it seem less reliable. Unrestricted web publishing can pass off scientific sounding information as real. Articles like this get passed around often on social media. They are posted and reposted, and I doubt people are looking into the sources before they pass it along. Wrong information could be easily posted and passed around and the people passing it around wouldn't realize they were doing it.
Thursday, September 18, 2014
Saturday, September 13, 2014
Blog 2: How do you know what you know? Name one new thing you learned using a social media site today and explain why you believe it is true. What source did you use to acquire this information? At times, are social media sites reliable for obtaining credible information?
Today I learned that George Zimmerman is in the media again, this time for road rage. He is being accused of threatening another man's life. From this article, I've learned that this isn't the first time he's been accused of threatening somebody's life since the murder of Trayvon Martin. I learned this on FaceBook. It was one of their trending articles, and I clicked on it. With FaceBook recently, they will give you all of the articles they have found about the topic you've picked and list them all for you. In this case, there were many accounting the same information, many different sites and reporters. In this case, I believe that what I've read is true. Some of the sites weren't the most reliable looking, but all in all, they had the same information and it seemed that it was true.
I believe that social media can be reliable for credible information. If I wanted to look up a certain topic or news story that I heard about, social media probably wouldn't be my first choice in obtaining it, but it is where I learn a lot of new information. I usually take what I learn from social media and then do my own research to find out more. The same goes for all other social media, Twitter, Tumblr etc, they have their place. They are good outlets to get the original story out, but their goal isn't to get accurate information out, it's to get the most updated information out. It is helpful, for me, when something big or important happens, I see it on social media first, because it might take longer for me to get the information if it wasn't on social media. I think that goes for a lot of people. Social media helps get breaking news out quickly, to a large audience.
Today I learned that George Zimmerman is in the media again, this time for road rage. He is being accused of threatening another man's life. From this article, I've learned that this isn't the first time he's been accused of threatening somebody's life since the murder of Trayvon Martin. I learned this on FaceBook. It was one of their trending articles, and I clicked on it. With FaceBook recently, they will give you all of the articles they have found about the topic you've picked and list them all for you. In this case, there were many accounting the same information, many different sites and reporters. In this case, I believe that what I've read is true. Some of the sites weren't the most reliable looking, but all in all, they had the same information and it seemed that it was true.
I believe that social media can be reliable for credible information. If I wanted to look up a certain topic or news story that I heard about, social media probably wouldn't be my first choice in obtaining it, but it is where I learn a lot of new information. I usually take what I learn from social media and then do my own research to find out more. The same goes for all other social media, Twitter, Tumblr etc, they have their place. They are good outlets to get the original story out, but their goal isn't to get accurate information out, it's to get the most updated information out. It is helpful, for me, when something big or important happens, I see it on social media first, because it might take longer for me to get the information if it wasn't on social media. I think that goes for a lot of people. Social media helps get breaking news out quickly, to a large audience.
Tuesday, September 2, 2014
Blog Post #1 Com 510
Blog post #1 for Com 510 - Knowledge and New Media
What forms of new media do you use daily? How has new social media influenced your perspective of events? Are these positive or negative influences?
New media has become second nature in today's world. Between the computer, my iPhone and iPad, I use new media constantly throughout the day. I wake up and check FaceBook, Instagram, Tumblr and sometimes Twitter. I am now using new media to work towards getting my Master's Degree. Having access to all of this information at my finger tips at all times has allowed me to be more productive and up to date. For example, if I have down time at work, I can check FaceBook or another social media site, and I will be updated on anything that has happened on a small and/or global level.
I feel like I am much more up to date on world events because of new media. I think in the case of getting new information quickly, it is the fastest way. I don't always believe what I've read. I will usually check multiple, reliable, sources before I take what is being said seriously, but all in all it is a good way to get updates. I think when you are getting information from on online site, it is important to look at who is bringing you the news. You have to be aware and careful of opinion articles as opposed to fact based articles that will bring you all sides of the story. I think social media does a good job bringing the events and news forward, and bringing it to more people. It allows a larger audience to stay updated on news events, people that may not have cared to pick up a newspaper before.
What forms of new media do you use daily? How has new social media influenced your perspective of events? Are these positive or negative influences?
New media has become second nature in today's world. Between the computer, my iPhone and iPad, I use new media constantly throughout the day. I wake up and check FaceBook, Instagram, Tumblr and sometimes Twitter. I am now using new media to work towards getting my Master's Degree. Having access to all of this information at my finger tips at all times has allowed me to be more productive and up to date. For example, if I have down time at work, I can check FaceBook or another social media site, and I will be updated on anything that has happened on a small and/or global level.
I feel like I am much more up to date on world events because of new media. I think in the case of getting new information quickly, it is the fastest way. I don't always believe what I've read. I will usually check multiple, reliable, sources before I take what is being said seriously, but all in all it is a good way to get updates. I think when you are getting information from on online site, it is important to look at who is bringing you the news. You have to be aware and careful of opinion articles as opposed to fact based articles that will bring you all sides of the story. I think social media does a good job bringing the events and news forward, and bringing it to more people. It allows a larger audience to stay updated on news events, people that may not have cared to pick up a newspaper before.
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