A problem in supporting "gatekeeping" or regulation of internet sites (and possibly other information formats) is WHO is should determine what is or what is not quality or acceptable kinds of information. I was just viewing this morning the news channel BBC America with a story on how the Chinese government is making it a regular policy to censor "offensive" and "objectionable"internet sites. Think also how easily information in this format CAN so easily appear and disappear. Link to the following site:
http://marylaine.com/exlibris/xlib161.html
jj
2 comments:
That was a fascinating article! It is scary to think that factual information could be suppressed by a person's individual ideology and that there wouldn't be checks and balances or "gatekeepers" to stop that from happening. Maybe a problem with "gatekeeping" is that when it is used to ensure that information is worthy of being published it does not follow the information after the publishing has taken place to ensure that it is not being removed from public forums for politically biased reasons.
What a provocative article. My thoughts jumped between "big brother is watching" and maybe more thought should have been put into publishing these extremely sensitive issues BEFORE they had been opened up to the world on the WWW. Retracting information can often make it much more tantalizing - what is it that they don't want us to know? I am addressing the information categorized as potential risks for terrorism and to national security. This article points out to me that much of the over zealous publishing on the Internet carries with it a responsibility that is taken too lightly. Pulling information off, in many instances, without an explanation why (is the information invalid or incorrect?) is equally irresponsible.
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