Facts to Fiction

I was recently reading the article, The next Big Headache for Digital Publishers” which was based on the integration of Wikipedia articles to Google’s News Entries. If Wikipedia becomes the default, it will become the leading source of information on the web, easily winning precedence over news organizations. Why is this newsworthy? Well, I was thinking about information we are exposed to and what that means to our society, our future. If Wikipedia, a website that aggregates and collects information that everyday people submit (no credentials necessary) becomes our default source of information, what kind of information are we gathering? Sure, they have their own team of ‘fact checkers’ but in taking the role of news leader, and with the immense amount of minute-to-minute information, will they continue to be so thorough? Will we base our thoughts and opinions on oftentimes illegitimate or unconfirmed information? Many people argue we do that now- with blogs. The Huffington Post is one of the most popular sources of information- and sure we know they’re opinions, but does that even matter anymore? Have we shifted from a fact based data sharing center--where news organizations, with trained researchers and journalists, are required to report fairly and without bias—into a-one-for-all era.Will neutral and balanced journalism be a dying profession in the next 50 years or will Wikipedia and blogs realize their power and begin to make room for ‘factual information’? Perhaps they will host a ‘Here are the facts’ section so we are encouraged to form our own opinions as well.

What’s next for Google’s search method is critical in understanding how we, regular people, realize and collect information and what type of information that is. Looking forward to seeing how this pans out…and determining whether Google really can change how we think of the world.