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'''Our collective genes and culture have evolved in a world where | '''Our collective genes and culture have evolved in a world where any information was deemed important as it was scarce. The internet era changed this by providing an overabundance of information, our issue now is not scarcity but validity. Nowadays, much of the information is not presented on the merit of its reliability but on the basis of getting our attention. Wikipedia has tried to combat the reliability issue by listing which sources hierarchically:'''[[File:News hierarchy.jpg|alt=News hierarchy|center|960x960px|News hierarchy]] | ||
[[File:Corporate owners-media.png|alt=Oligo|thumb|'''Figure 2'''. Oligopolies of media.]] | [[File:Corporate owners-media.png|alt=Oligo|thumb|'''Figure 2'''. Oligopolies of media.]] | ||
[[File:Weighting hierarchy.png|alt=Weighting hierarchy|thumb|'''Figure 3'''. Scientific weighting hierarchy.]] | [[File:Weighting hierarchy.png|alt=Weighting hierarchy|thumb|'''Figure 3'''. Scientific weighting hierarchy.]] | ||
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However, the word ''reliable'' simply implies they are not making things up, it does not take into account potential [[Cognitive biases|biases]] of each source [[framing]] issues to make it more digestible. | However, the word ''reliable'' simply implies they are not making things up, it does not take into account potential [[Cognitive biases|biases]] of each source [[framing]] issues to make it more digestible. | ||
Imagine all the information fictional and non-fictional that could ever be produced was produced and available to anyone via the internet. Every ''fact'' would have an equal amount of arguments for and against it irrelevant of its source. Borges in his book [[wikipedia:The_Library_of_Babel|The Library of Babel]], creates a thought experiment where all possible 410-page books of a certain format and character set are available to anyone. Essentially, within our own confines this represents all knowledge humans '''could''' possibly produce. It would take several | Imagine all the information fictional and non-fictional that could ever be produced was produced and available to anyone via the internet. Every ''fact'' would have an equal amount of arguments for and against it irrelevant of its source. Borges in his book [[wikipedia:The_Library_of_Babel|The Library of Babel]], creates a thought experiment where all possible 410-page books of a certain format and character set are available to anyone. Essentially, within our own confines, this represents all knowledge humans '''could''' possibly produce. It would take several lifetimes for one person to read each and every book. Similarly, it would take multiple lifetimes to read everything on the internet, understand its source and bias and whittle out the truth. This is especially difficult as our media is being aggregated into oligopolies which often serve a specific agenda (see '''Figure 2'''). | ||
== Critical Appraisal == | == Critical Appraisal == | ||