BLOGOLIFERATION: THE CHANGING FACE OF INFORMATION DISSEMINATION

 Globalization is the mantra spoken in all spheres of human endeavor. Barring all contradictions, I understand globalization as the systematic integration of the world as a self-interacting enclave devoid of  most, if not all, communicative impediments. Thus, it professes of a world of harnessed inter-connectivity.

One factor that has led to the monumental achievement of this globalization agenda is technology; internet and social media, such as Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, LinkedIn, Instagram, and the various products of Google. Impressively, this technological revolution has actually harnessed communication and improved the rate of sustaining friendship.

Now, we do not need to wait a month to have our “love letters” delivered to our pals and lovers who have been separated from us by distance or by the hassles of our struggling to make a living; with a phone call, we can afford to speak with our loved ones notwithstanding their physical location or our psychological situation. We can get to reconnect with our primary school friends whose contact we lost upon graduation, and we can get to keep up with the “emotions” of our brothers and sisters in spite of our schedules and distance. These are the gains of technology to our family and social lives. Interesting.

Another aspect of the gains of technology, with specific reference to the internet is the ready availability of information. I was having a discussion with a friend of mine last night, when I mentioned of a place that is located downtown from where I currently live. When he inquired on how to get the place, I simply replied: “My friend Google will know.” Statements such as "ask Google" have been a typical sensory response when we feel that we are saddled with insufficiency of knowledge on a subject. We instinctively cling onto our computers, tablets or even cellphones and log unto Google, Bing, ask.com, etc. to update our knowledge.

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However, this comes with a price: there is the tendency that the so called “knowledge” is rather than being beneficial adulterates our knowledge reservoir. Therefore, instead of boasting of updating our knowledge, we would rather be making ourselves caricatures before noblest of knowledge in the field. In other words, internet sources, with few exceptions, may not be “trusted” sources of information. ANYBODY gets to update ANYTHING, and claim to be an expert without proper verifiable credentials. This is the gloomy part of the technological revolution: it is open to abuse. It lacks what I may refer to as “constructive” discrimination of readership and authorship.

This then brings me to the issue at hand: the bane on journalism. Just as everyone may post anything on the internet and claim the right of a professional, the news agents are not shielded from this abuse. When I was young, my father would always ensure that he came back home with a least a loose-leaf of newspapers, for us to update our knowledge of global and national current affairs. At least, we were sure that the story were not distorted, nor was it incorrect. We could read of the story from different newspapers journals, giving us different perspectives of the story depending on whose side the story is told: both sides having done their investigations, through interviews and freelancing, and sometimes through “espionage”. However, in all situations, we were faced with the real balanced story. This is essentially the newsworthiness and “accuracy” of the piece.

However, the news have begun to lose its flair through the “blogoliferation” of the news channels. News agents have lost their rights to the “gossip” and “news” bloggers, whose interest is not in the content of their news but in the traffic to their blogs. There is hardly any verification process for their contents. Rather, it is a story of “copying and pasting” with little editorial inputs. It no more takes anything to be a news agent, which then needed some education as a “journalist” or “mass communicator.” 

BLOGOLIFERATION is taking away our news, and giving us “junks”. 

Note: Blogoliferation means the systematic and constant increase of news blogs and websites.