So, here’s some of my thoughts about this week’s readings. Please feel free to expand upon or comment on anything I say here!
In chapter 1 of “Research Strategies,” William Badke welcomes us to the ‘information fog.’ The image of fog brings several things to mind: fog is very dense; you can’t see very far in front of you because of it, so you need to slow down; you can’t see far in any particular direction, so you feel disoriented, you don’t know where you are; and you want to get out of it and find clear air and visibility.
Badke starts the chapter by going back in time to the earlier phases of human society, when information was communicated through word of mouth alone, and then he talks about the revolution of printing in the west in the 15th century and its consequences. But the ‘fog’ part really comes with the arrival of the World Wide Web (internet). The explosion of information and the easy production of and access to information have created this situation of poor visibility.
The other articles and essays in this week’s readings address possible ways to deal with this fog: becoming critical of our information sources, being sure to consult alternative information sources like zines and the alternative press, etc. The introduction to Harrington and Meade, for example, only tries to address many of the challenges of the new information landscape without providing any answers. Right now, many of us are just trying to orient ourselves in this thick fog.
It seems to me that for all the changes that Badke and the others are talking about, some things don’t change about how we evaluate and use information. We still need to understand where the information is coming from, who produced it, why they produced it, and whether there are alternative sources or alternative views. In other words, there are basic critical skills of reading, selecting, evaluating, deciding that will always stand us in good stead.
What do you think?
I think you’re absolutely right with your interpretation about the “fog” characteristic of information because in today’s digital age information can be acquired from any part of the world in a matter of seconds, but the problem with this rapid influx of information is that it raises certain questions such as who wrote it, are they reliable, is this information aggrandized or exaggerated, is this information biased, and many more questions of that nature. Information today isn’t as clear as it was back in the day,in the sense that it’s hard to discern where the information is coming from. Today anyone with a computer can post something on the world wide web (WWW) and its hard to take things at face value. People need to understand where their information is coming from, who created it, why they created it as well as why it was posted up, they also need to know whether different sources and differences of opinions exist.
I most defiantly I agree and support the statement that you firmly wrote on your first blog concerning the fact that in chapter 1 of the Research Strategies book by Badke, the idea of “The information fog” was absolutely started hundreds of years ago but evolved to its current status through the use of technology which included computers and the internet which hosted the world wide web. With the “WWW” the human kind was able to widen its horizons concerning information and the information doc of age but at the same time the human kind what overwhelmed with all this new evolving information that was truly hidden behinds closed doors.
Reffering to the blog post, i think almost everyone would agree. Many people beleive that information should be helping us to find answers to questions , however sometimes it leave us with more problem to solve. the reason for this is that we are not reaching the right information. As Prof. lan Beilin mention in his blog post, Badke talks about the “information fog” in his book “Reseach Strategies”. One example that cause information fog is the WORLD WIDE WEB. Nowaday, we are living in world where anyone around the world could just go and post anything they feel like. As a result, we have to try to differentiate the real experts from the fake one.
The author points out it is a fog because the internet provided a free enviroment for everyone, so we can all speak freely and leave an opinion about what we want to say. We can not just reject an opinion from another person, simply because the sauce is not clear. Usually, the judgement we give to a particular matter is based on our own experience, knowledge and emotion. Learning is a process of accepting new ideas, but with all the information flooding to us, we really need to find the vital information we need among it. Therefore the skill to identify the source also become vital to us.