Final Portfolio
Digital media has advanced tremendously and changed the way civic life operates. So much so that it is hard to imagine a life without technology and media now. The capabilities that most people have access to through their devices were unimaginable at one point. While these abilities are amazing and extremely helpful, it is important to know how to properly use them. Jones and Hafner say the change from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0 is the change from a read-only web to a read-write web (42). Technical barriers have changed allowing an extreme increase in the amount of people that can publish online. This has created an influx of information and a constant competition to get people’s attention. The change to Web 2.0 has created major changes in American and global life in several ways.
Before talking about how the internet has changed, I wanted to talk about how the internet has changed us. We are in a generation that seems to entirely revolve around technology and social media. While the internet can be an amazing thing for us, it can also be a bad thing. We talked a lot about issues surrounding this in class this semester. We talked about how this has changed how people interact, how people think, how they talk, and more. The internet and technology have a bigger effect on us than I think most of us realize. This is why we must know how to properly use the internet and the information we come across daily.
This semester we have learned many important tools and techniques important for digital media and writing. Before I talk about those tools, I want to talk about the main changes we have seen in digital media. To start I wanted to talk about “attention economies”. This term was created by psychologist, economist, and Nobel Laureate Herbert A. Simon. He says that “a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention”. I wanted to talk about this first because I think it is the most important part of digital media as a whole. In today’s society, there is an extremely excess amount of information out there. It is important to know what to focus on to not waste your time and to make sure you are getting valuable information.
We also talked about information overload which is important in a society that never stops creating new information everywhere. Jones and Hafner describe information overload as “not so much one of ‘too much information’ but rather one of defining what we mean by information in the first place, and of understanding how we create it by forming strategic relationships between different pieces of data”. I wanted to include this quote because it is critical to think about when having overwhelming amounts of information and data in front of us. A lot of us would probably admit that we do not spend a lot of time focusing on important or useful information. When spending a lot of time online, it is key to turn some of that data into knowledge. The internet can be an amazing place to learn all kinds of new things if we use it properly.
Another big way that digital media has changed is due to hyperlinking. The hyperlink is an interface element that humans interact with. What’s ironic is I just used a hyperlink to link my source for the previous information. By clicking the link, you will be taken to the original TED talk video that I watched. This is an amazing tool in the world of digital writing. It gives readers the ability to instantly check where information came from rather than searching for it. I think it can also help the writer appear more credible by having the sources so easily accessible. When writing different articles and pieces, hyperlinking is a great tool for writers to use. It also allows readers to take a more active role in digital media than compared to print media. Like all good things, it should not be overused. Too many hyperlinks can take away from the overall writing. If there is too much for the reader to click on, they may get distracted and focus their attention on something else. This goes back to attention economies, in a society full of information we have to decide what is most important when writing a piece and attracting an audience. Writers want to engage their audience but not overstimulate them.
It is more important now than ever to have at least a decent understanding of internet literacy. One of the big ideas that we discussed in class was misinformation, which has only gotten more prevalent. I wanted to include this quote from the presentation on Introduction to Information Literacy Presentation: “The web has potential to be this big misinformation machine. BUT it also is the greatest fact-checking machine ever devised. You just have to learn how to use it for its potential to fact-check”. It is incredibly important to know how to properly use the web and get the best use out of it. With the increase in information, not every source on the internet will be honest. As engaged citizens, we are responsible for double-checking the things we see online.
These were important to discuss before the tools because these are the kinds of things that these techniques are useful for. I want to focus on the different tools we have learned this semester. I think these are important to combat attention economies and ensure that public writers along with other people are getting the best use out of digital media. The first thing I wanted to talk about is the interactive media bias chart. With an increase in information comes an increase in biases. I found this website to be an amazing tool to use when evaluating different sources. I like to read about different events and pieces of information online but sometimes that is hard when I can not always trust that the source is unbiased.
The next method that we learned that helps with fact-checking is the SIFT method. This stands for stop, investigate the source, find trusted coverage and trace claims. I wanted to briefly go over what each step is because they are extremely important. First, stop and see if you trust the source and what your goal is. The second step is to investigate the source which is to identify what you are reading and the source. If you are reading something to do with healthcare, you would want to know that the source is a published medical journal. Finding trusted coverage means looking for more sources that are more reliable. Lastly, trace claims back to the source. This step is important because, in a society filled with millions of sources, not every single one will always be correct. The Check, Please! article gives a great example of this on Twitter. The poster responded to an article saying it could be time to ditch sunscreen when in all actuality the article is not saying that or a reliable source. When we went over this in class we looked at the image of the food flying in the air in a cool way. When we traced it back to the original source, we were able to establish that it was photoshopped. In this case, we were able to reverse image search and figure out it was false. To reverse image search, all you have to do is copy an image and place it into Google. There are tools all around us if we pay attention to them. It is very common these days to see or read something and think it is real and it is actually not. This is why people need to do what they can to check the validity of the information they are seeing.
Conscientious digital citizenship is important for public writers for numerous reasons. Most importantly, it is crucial to know how to properly use digital media as a public writer. Digital media has changed to allow hyperlinks, images, videos, and more. These are useful for writers to include but important that they are used correctly. I think that these different modes should add to the writing rather than distract or take away.
All in all, whether you are a public writer or a frequent digital media user, it is important to be up to date on changes in digital media. Whether you are reading about politics or healthcare, you want to ensure that what you are reading is accurate and reliable. Misinformation is a big part of our society and it is crucial that people can decipher it from real information. The tools I previously described are useful for misinformation, information overload, and internet literacy overall. It is important to be engaged citizens, especially in what feels like a rapidly intense growing world. I have talked about it numerous times in several pieces of my writing that our society has gotten a lot more polarized in recent years and is only going to get worse with the upcoming election. With that being said, everyone should make it a priority to be engaged online but also be aware of the ever-changing internet modes.
