Summarizing and Contextualizing:

“The Rhetorical Ecology of Peer Review: Changes in the Digital Age” — Martha D. Patton

Where do you go to find information today? In today’s age of technology is the information on the internet factual, or do you have to use peer reviewed science journals to be one hundred percent sure the information you’re getting is true? In the article, The Rhetorical Ecology of Peer Review: Changes in the Digital Age, Professor Martha Patton gives concrete evidence to support her claim, that in fact, peer reviewed articles created and shared online are just as factual, if not more factual, than peer reviewed scientific journals.

The “Info”:

Patton starts out by getting you in the frame of mind that writing and sharing information within a large community is similar to is similar to ecology. In ecology there are tons of natural outside pressure that effect different parts of an ecosystem. The same can be said for information on the internet. Any piece of writing published online has the same kind of pressures living organisms have within and ecosystem, this is because both are just forms of networks. Through networks you get a wider variety of people so there are many more “gatekeepers”, as Patton calls them, that are like online moderators. Before the internet these “gatekeepers” would have to wait some times years after research was completed before they got to review information, today that’s much different. Networks actually make it harder for false information to be published because “gatekeepers” are getting access to more primary research, stuff that has real raw data. This allows for gatekeepers to respond to information faster as well as communicate with authors easier. This also allows more people to be able to check information, so you have a better chance of getting information reviewed by someone who is knowledgeable in the subject you’re writing about.

The Arguments

Although there is a lot of false information floating around the internet, believe it or not, the internet actually makes sites like Wikipedia to run freely, while at the same time upholding a high standard for accurate information. The internet allows people to network like never before, being about to connect with strangers all around the world, at all different stages of life. In The Hive, by Marshall Poe, similarly Poe says

“A quarter century ago it was inconceivable that a legion of unpaid, unorganized amateurs scattered about the globe could create anything of value, let alone what may one day be the most comprehensive repository of knowledge in human history. Back then we knew that people do not work for free; or if they do work for free, they do a poor job; and if they work for free in large numbers, the result is a muddle. Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger knew all this when they began an online encyclopedia in 1999. Now, just seven years later, everyone knows different” (Poe 349)

The advancement of technology and the internet has changed how we exchange information over a very short period of time, and both Poe and Patton capture this in both pieces. Without networks of people that come from every kind of background possible, the internet wouldn’t be as diverse with information. Internet Communities and networking allow us to find the real truth and the real answers. The answer as to who decides the truth, you.

In closing, consider the words of several journal editors. As Daniel tells us, the editor of Science once asked, “But why peer review? Why not an objective, all-knowing, all-wise genius to serve as an editor?” And he then replied, “Such mortals do not exist. It is essential to divide the task of evaluation and to bring expertise to bear on the various papers that are submitted,” concluding that “The general experience of many editors is that review leads to improvement of nearly every manuscript…” (Patton)