In these days, when people are asked a question, they easily answered, “Find it on the Internet.” Quiet obviously, the Internet has become the most powerful resource of information. Additionally, news media or news paper, the traditional route of getting information, cannot be ignored because those resources still affect our lives. Likewise, this affluent resource of information makes the era, “The age of information.” What the problem is that it is getting harder to sort what information is true of useful. Following reasons will explain why people may be confused about information and news.
Although the internet allows people to get information effortlessly, quiet large portion of the information in the internet is rumors. That’s because the internet users can not only acquire information in the internet but also provide it on the internet. As they are not qualified expert on reporting information, the information that they uploaded cannot be credible completely. We sometimes hear the news that a celebrity committed suicide because of rumors which were spread through the internet. This extreme case shows us that people acquire rumors without identifying whether the rumors are truth or not.
Moreover, political powers have crucial influence on the information or news. In Korea, major new paper companies divide into two categories. The first group reflects the politics of the right wing. Those companies advocate the policies of the government and do not state the opposite side. The other group reflects the politics of the left wing. They advocate the labour class and try to mend the policies which were formulated for the vested-right class. These phenomena also can be found in the mass media. Therefore, if people subscribe only one-side of news paper or watch only one-side of TV, they may have bias and cannot accept objective aspects.
Now we can find carious phenomena in the society that were caused by misinterpreted information. When information is too impetuous, people merely accept other information which can provides them other aspects of the information. Therefore what is required to people is embracing multifarious aspects and developing the eye of sorting truth.