How reliable is the internet?

Over the past decade or so, the internet has become one of the worlds biggest sources of news. Now potentially anyone has the ability to publish up to date information and this has had a major influence on the way people follow world events. However this does raises concerns over the reliabilty of web sourced information.

The first issue when questioning the reliability of the internet is that anybody can publish anything. This makes it easy to misinform large numbers of readers or create inaccurate or opinionated content. Though this is true, ‘old’ media have always had even more power in doing the same thing. Mainstream traditional media, whether print, television or radio, still have the ability of reaching huge audiences and influencing their opinions. Moreover while many new media outlets are still maturing, their non-digital competitors have usually already found a trusting (or at least agreeing) audience.

The virtually infinite size of cyberspace contributes greatly to the audience’s choice of sources. Anybody can find an outlet of information that they will understand, find interest in, and trust to be accurate and unbiased enough to satisfy their needs. Where old media audiences are often limited to a small range (or often even a single) outlet for all their news, the internet allows its users to visit different sources for different kinds of news.

As mainstream new media outlets gain popularity, they are pressured into providing reliable information and become similar to traditional news sources. At the same time more controversial and openly opinionated outlets also gain more attention through internet publication, and the variety of opinions and views available to the public becomes greater.

One problem that arises with new media is the randomness of sites people may be referred to for some types of information. People may Google a specific topic and choose whatever shows up first as their source of information. This method of finding information is often extremely unreliable yet used by millions of people.

It is likely that as the internet develops further and reputable websites start to settle and find their market, new media will eventually become very similar to traditional media in both reliability and accessibility. The most visited websites are currently still search engines, as the internet grows as a part of society, people will stop searching for information and start knowing where to find what they want. The more this happens, the more new media will become able to truly excel over its traditional rival when it comes to truthfulness, reliability and objectivity.