There is a great quote from the article about Zeke that really stood out to me and I would like to talk about here.
"The internet's information, communication and networking power enabled Spier to discover his passion for social justice and to find the willingness to sacrifice his freedom to express it. Although other media had stirred his emotions and informed his ideology, the internet enabled him to conduct unmediated…communications with others of like mind. The internet became for him the link between education and motivation and the catalyst for action.”
I feel like this quote from the reading really hits on a point that everyone can agree with. In today’s society, the internet acts as a connector between people who share common beliefs. Television and newspaper articles do a great job about informing you about an issue, but the communication is one sided, there is no back and forth of dialogue. Once Zeke was education by the traditional forms of media, it was the internet that really grabbed him and caused him to take action because it was a form of media that he could interact with.
The internet has certainly provided us with countless open forums for back and forth dialogue that were impossible before its invention. However, there is definitely merit to other more traditional forms of media that provide us with more or less objective information. The problem is that most, if not all, news outlets have their own agendas to press so it is very hard to decide if there is any objective media.
ReplyDeleteI like what you said that television and newspaper articles do a great job informing you about an issue, however they also do a great job misinforming you. This is basically because television and newspapers are pretty much a single opinion. We as viewers and readers sit here and have information thrown at as. Some of us may disagree with the information, however most will just accept it and use it as fact. The internet, on the other hand, not only throws information at us, but for the first time lets us have an opinion. We can join sites, boards, and have blogs which allow us to voice an opinion and if we are convincing enough we can even get people to follow and band together to change the way things are. This was never really possible before the internet.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Sam, but that does not mean that everything you read on the internet is all true. Besides some people being blissfully ignorant of the truth, many people use the internet to push their own beliefs onto others in an attempt to gain followers for a certain cause. When using information from the internet you should always be aware of the author's potential bias's
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