In a previous life as a journalist I was taught to always seek at least two reliable sources, or two sources at least - personal measurements of reliablility being utterly unrealiable.
These days I end up most often running away from multiple sources. Information makes it's way to me via the usual channels and then seeks reinforcement via Twitter, FaceBook, endless blogs and the all mighty Google. Whether I want it or not, I hear about the Transfigura injunction story, about Belle de Jour's real identity, about how to make more cash than I need online, about the weather, birthdays, climate change, coffee, anything that I may or may not want to know. The stories happen somewhere, they become news and suddenly everyone knows everything.
Then all these endless sources fight for attention, for quote, re-tweet and befriend. It is all of a sudden foolishness to ignore them but all I can hear is the white noise on the wireless (it's a laptop these days)... and I dare not say anything more. What happened to those reliable sources?
2 comments:
How right you are. A related question is, what's happening to journalism? Journalists everywhere are struggling to figure out a way of continuing to make a living in the age of the internet by performing what remains an indispensable service. We should all hope they figure something out, because if there's ever a time when we have to rely on the white noise of the internet as our source of information, we'll all be in trouble.
I'm intrigued by your blog. It suggests more than it tells. You should tell us more.
Thank you for the comment.
The post was just a reaction to the chain of speculations surrounding stories like Belle de Jour's, etc. It's about the chains of rumors and half-truths that by being repeated through so many "outlets of information" turn into reliable sources or even more, turn into "stories" that are worthy of endless comments.
I find it hard to navigate in white noise and I try to make sense of it by creating some more noise it seems.
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