Denamarie Ercolani

"The exposure of the deception again brought to focus a reality of the modern ages." 174
The internet and the web have once again brought to our attention that we can not believe anything we read or see. Technology has given us a world in which almost anyone can publish a credible-looking web page. That is a problem.
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COPY AND PASTE:
Copying and pasting articles is where we run into our first problem. When we cut and paste, we tend to cut out the relevant information. This ends in the reader misinterpretting the meaning.
Gillmore: wrote a satiric column "quoting" mainly about Microsoft executives as well as the PC industry in general. It was all just a joke. However, someone read the article and cut and pasted it to a friend and left out the most important sentence..."News stories we're unlikely to read,", that led to more than one misunderstanding.
Ways to get around this common problem
---copy the entire article
---copy the url
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NEW WAYS TO MISLEAD:
The latest demonstration of common trend of fakery, doctoring photos. People do this by using Photoshop and other image manipulation to crop pictures taht remove someone, or highlight an important element or add a person or image to the picture. This makes the image less clear to 'read'.
Example: Kerry and Fonda
Another way to mislead the public or use the public is by digitally inserting advertisements
Example: Dan Rather's newscast from Times Square
---digitally created billboards advertising products (they saw nothing wrong with it)
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WHO'S TALKING, AND WHY?
Pump and dump schemers work on discussions planting information on forums and blogs then selling them for profit.
Investment forums can be a source of incredibily good information, too. Disgruntled employees post insider tales that can be a warning of harder times to come for shareholders.
Investment Forum
Internet gossip monger Matt Drudge wrote the "Kerry Affair" that had no evidence at all and was denied. It became popular after he posted it on his web site.
Kerry Affair
Web sites can be faked, but a hoax that uses someone elses name or hides behind a name for improper purposes attracts unwelcomed attention from authorities. They could lose their web site if something foul or improper is put up. If you are going to blog be confident, truthful and dont hide behind a fake name.
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TROLLS:
A troll is deliberately crafted to provoke others with the intention of wasting their time and energy. A time theif, they steal from people. They are heinous. They clog the blogs with irrelevant or obscene postings, ruining the experience.
Slashdot is a site where the editors look for the best items on the web and highlight them on their site with a summary and a link, inviting others to comment. One item gets about 250 comments. This site receives a lot of trolls. However a way they are reducing the trolls is with user registration with a valid email.
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SPIN:
Spinning is putting events or other facts into contexts favoring oneself or one's client or cause.
Online spin is amusing. Google bombing, connecting a word or pharse to a site.
"miserable failure"---George W. Bush
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CITIZEN REPORTERS TO THE RESCUE:
Citizens are becoming more skeptical of online forums and blogs, and thus becoming investigative reporters.
Kaycee Nicole---blog about her life and illness
*******later on someone on a blog suggested that maybe she was fake, they investigated through court records and found out it was a hoax.

WordPirates is a website where you can add a word plus an explanation why it should be there. This helps with words or phrases on blogs to see what it means or if the blogger is a fake. Also some words have been taken over by corporate and political interests.
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BREAKING IT ALL DOWN:
"Users of online information need to develop similar filters. They need a hierarchy of trust."
We need better software to traverse the web using recommendations of friends, etc.
If you see something that looks like it has a promise to make a measurable impact on your life, verify the claim before reacting.

Crusty old editors to green reporters: "If your mother says she loves you, check it out."
Take the time to look over things instead of making an immediate presumption about something you read or seen.