Unrestricted Web Publishing

Unrestricted web publishing through mass media does not entirely exist. That is to say, publications that choose to also carry their content in other forms of media such as the internet in addition to their print publications still bear the title of the organization in which they represent. Below is an article from Time online by Fareed Zakaria regarding the obtainment and storage of Americans’ data by the US government. At first glance, it appears as though he does not cite in the article full references. He makes mention of embedded citations within the article but no references listed in the article although other articles and reviews exist for the books he mentioned within article. After reading the article, it seemed apparent that it was an opinion piece with loosely backed information. Unfamiliar with the breadth of Zakaria’s credentials and long history in news and media, it was quickly made apparent that he was qualified to speak on such topics. Web searches for Zakaria’s works revealed his interviews with Presidents and Prime Ministers, his many scholarly publications and speaking events with international collaborators on a scholarly level.

From all appearances, it seemed as though Zakaria almost did not need to provide his sources formally to prove credibility, that it would be more of a formality and accreditation to his editing background given his long career and multiple journalism awards and prestigious interviews granted. That is, until Wikipedia reveals that he had a run-in with a plagiarism scam in the summer of 2012 in which his article published appeared too similar to another writer’s article for which he apologized profusely. While plagiarism maintains being one of the worst crimes a journalist can commit, it appears to be a tiny misstep in a long and awarded career. Zakaria’s article itself makes several claims without listing references, however a brief cross-check via internet reveals that the “public knowledge” backing he provides to his claims is found elsewhere by other sources to list as truth.

Below is the article snippet with link to full article with verbatim statements that first appear unsupported by traditional citations.

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Big Data, Meet Big Brother
If computers can now predict our behavior, should governments watch our every move?
By Fareed Zakaria

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2146453,00.html
TO READ MORE BY FAREED, GO TO time.com/zakaria

"'One who breaks an unjust law must do so openly, lovingly and with a willingness to accept the penalty.'" That was Martin Luther King Jr.'s definition of civil disobedience."

"This will be the first generation of humans to have an indelible record," write Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen in their book The New Digital Age."

"In their excellent book Big Data, Viktor Mayer- Schönberger and Kenneth Cukier write about the police in Richmond, Va., who track criminal incidents against a variety of events: corporate paydays, sports events, concerts, gun shows and dozens of other possible triggers."

"Two weeks after a gun show, for example, there is always a jump in violent crime. Multiply this example by thousands, and you understand what the NSA computers are doing."

"As Mayer-Schönberger and Cukier point out, if the computers can make predictions based on data analysis, should we prevent bad actions by arresting people before they act? ...The NSA program Prism aims to identify suspicious patterns to allow the government to prevent terrorism (i.e., to act before an attack takes place). A research project at the Department of Homeland Security that tried to predict terrorist behavior based on people's vital signs--physiological patterns--was 70% accurate, according to the authors."

"As far as we know, the U.S. government has broken no laws and has followed all established procedures, and Congress approved this program, though it did so in secret, writing laws that aren't public." 

"Obama Administration officials, echoing their (slightly less transparent) predecessors in the Bush era, insist that any fishing expeditions undertaken through terabytes of collected data are highly targeted and do not involve innocent Americans."

"Maybe so, but over the past 33 years, the Executive Branch has made 33,900 requests for surveillance to a special court created to make sure there are solid grounds to grant these surveillance powers. The court has approved all but 11 of them. Is that genuine oversight? It is hard to say, for the court itself is secret. Shouldn't we know more?"

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Excerpt from Criteria to Evaluate the Credibility of WWW Resources

Verbatim criteria listed in black; Answers in orange

1. Is there any evidence that the author of the Web information has some authority in the field about which she or he is providing information? Yes, 285 Time articles on similar topics such as politics, foreign policy and government; editor at large and columnist of Time. What are the author's qualifications, credentials and connections to the subject? Richard Stengel writes, "Fareed Zakaria, one of the world's most agenda-setting thinkers, joins TIME as a regular columnist and cover-story writer" ... "As well as being an author, columnist and academic, Fareed is the host of CNN's Sunday show Fareed Zakaria GPS. Fareed's presence at TIME creates a true partnership with our sister network CNN." ... "Fareed's worldview comes in part from being a naturalized American citizen who was born in Bombay and grew up outside the U.S. in what was then decidedly a country of the developing world. His academic background — a B.A. from Yale and a Ph.D. in political science from Harvard — also gives him a set of analytical tools that few of us have."

2. With what organization or institution is the author associated? CNN, Time, Washington Post, Newsweek, Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker. Is there a link to the sponsoring organization, a contact number and/or address or e-mail contact? Some embedded links to articles. 

3. Does the author have publications in peer reviewed (scholarly and professional) publications, on the Web or in hard copy? (If an author does not have peer reviewed articles published, this does not mean that she or he does not have credible information, only that there has been no professional "test" of the author's authority on that subject.) Scholarly and peer-reviewed books (Google search), major news correspondent, international economics seminar speaker, Univ. of Oklahoma commencement speaker

4. Are there clues that the author/s are biased? Not obvious. For example, is he/she selling or promoting a product? Not speaking to sell a product, speaking on topic of government and data; article appears unmotivated by data. Is the author taking a personal stand on a social/political issue or is the author being objective? Bias is not necessarily "bad," but the connections should be clear. 

5. Is the Web information current? Article is dated 8 July 2013 (weekly publication. If there are a number of out-of-date links that do not work or old news, what does this say about the credibility of the information? It would render it irrelevant and diminish credibility. 

6. Does the information have a complete list of works cited, which reference credible, authoritative sources? No. If the information is not backed up with sources, what is the author's relationship to the subject to be able to give an "expert" opinion? He has interviewed President Obama (repeat, granted special access) on politics and foreign relations.

7. Can the subject you are researching be fully covered with WWW sources or should print sources provide balance? The subject can include print sources if relevant, however article is on data and government. Books may provide historical precedent but the latest articles on technology are going to be made available online before books to keep up with changing content. Much scholarly research is still only available in traditional print form. It is safe to assume that if you have limited background in a topic and have a limited amount of time to do your research, you may not be able to get the most representative material on the subject. So be wary of making unsupportable conclusions based on a narrow range of sources. 

8. On what kind of Web site does the information appear? Time Magazine, owner of iconic cover photos and internationally recognized timeless classic. The site can give you clues about the credibility of the source.

References

Google. (2013). Search: "Fareed Zakaria." Retrieved from http://www.google.com.

Kakutani, Michiko. 2013, June 10. "Watched by the Web: Surveillance is Reborn." [Review of ‘Big Data,’ by Viktor Mayer-Schönberger and Kenneth Cukier]. 

New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/11/books/big-data-by-viktor-mayer-schonberger-and-kenneth-cukier.html?pagewanted=all.

Montecino, Virginia. (1998). "Criteria to Evaluate the Credibility of WWW Resources." Retrieved from http://mason.gmu.edu/~montecin/web-eval-sites.htm. 

Stengel, Richard. (2013). "Richard Stengel: Voice of influence." Time. Retrieved from http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2024222,00.html. 

Wikipedia. (2013). Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fareed_Zakaria.

Zakaria, Fareed. (2013). "Big Data Meet Big Brother." Time. Retrieved from http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2146453-2,00.html.

Social Media and Truth

Today, Twitter informed me via Associated Press tweet of a recent detainment by the FDA of imported pomegranates by a particular firm due to a multistate outbreak of Hepatitis A linked to their use in multiple organic fruit blends. I clicked on The Associated Press article to read more of the details surrounding this story at which point I learned that the FDA and CDC were able to determine the source of the outbreak due to the particular food's inclusion in similar products. For instance, several different organic health food fruit blends were obtaining their pomegranate seeds from the same Turkish company, Goknur. I found this to be extremely ironic and quite sad that one of the most expensive fruits that is marketed and sold in the United States is the pomegranate and furthermore, unsuspecting consumers were paying a premium for organic foods that in turn gave them a serious viral infection. Why steer clear of nonorganic foods in fear of ingesting pesticides just to pay more for organic foods and become infected with Hepatitis A? There seemed quite a disconnect and I was intrigued by the process in which this has occurred. 

After reading the AP article on their own web site sent from the Twitter link, I wanted to see of other reports of this same occurrence so I Googled "FDA pomegranate" to find ten different sources (Yahoo! News, NBC News, Boston Herald and foodsafetynews.com to name a few) on results page one reporting the same story, the first being from the FDA itself.

1. News for fda pomegranate

   natmonitor.com
   1. 
      

      FDA to detain pomegranate seeds offered for import from Goknur of Turkey

      
      

      FDA.gov ‎- 11 hours ago

      The U.S. Food and Drug Administration will detain shipments ofpomegranate seeds from Goknur Gida Maddeleri Ithalat Ihracat Tic [Goknur ...
2. This got me wondering about the details of Hepatitis A and its level of seriousness so I went to Wikipedia and searched "Hepatitis A" where I read about some of the effects on the body as well as the largely Western eradication of the disease via prevention. Lo and behold, the very last subject was regarding cases and the last listed was the most recent, added today which states:

   
   

   1. In June 2013, frozen berries sold by US retailer Costco and purchased by around 240,000 people were the subject of a recall, after at least 118 people were infected with HAV.^[35]

   1. ^[35] http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/06/18/hepatitis-a-frozen-berries-118-sick/2434267/

   
   

   The separating element between the story on FDA detainment of pomegranates one like the Three Mile Island meltdown story (CNN) is the gravity of events. The reactor meltdown means radiation leakage for possibly thousands of people as well as contaminated water and soil whereas the source of the contaminated pomegranate seeds was already determined and posed no future threat as it could be avoided. The issue with the reactor meltdown is that at that point ... it was out of the hands of the people to prevent.
   
   The question of "How do you know what you know?" can be interpreted as one of source, "How do you come about finding the things that you know?" or one of validity, "How do you know if what you learned is really true?" The answer lies in the interest of the end-user and how far he or she wants to dig to find it referenced in enough cases to make it more than just a one-off incidence. In this instance, multiple credible news sources were attributed to the broadcasting of this story, all of whom have reputations and obligations to uphold. The only feasible idea as to why this particular story would permeate our preferred search engine, our preferred online encyclopedia and one of the world's biggest forums for social media and still not be true is if it were a case of agenda setting and corruption that would involve the federal government, its agencies and publicly and privately-owned news sources. This is not entirely out of the picture but in weighing its validity and its sources, the offending parties would have to have a serious motivation to commit such acts. 

   
   

   Social media can be used to obtain credible information because it is in large, a re-sourcing of information. A re-tweet can be posted by anyone on Twitter but the source is still embedded, they are just helping the information to spread. In such instances, they would normally choose to re-post, re-tweet items that are of personal interest to them. Social media in the regard of credible information is used as a vehicle to transport such ideas. Yes, they are alterable messages, however if the message appears enough times then its consistency will be revealed. 

   
   

   
   

   References

   
   

   The Associated Press (29 June 2013). Retrieved 29 June 2013. http://bigstory.ap.org/article/fda-detain-import-firms-pomegranate-seeds.
   
   CNN. Pump Triggers Three Mile Island Reactor Shutdown, NRC says. Retreived from http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/20/us/pennsylvania-three-mile-island/index.html.

   
   

   https://www.google.com/search?q=fda+pomegranate&oq=fda+pome&aqs=chrome.1.57j0l2j61l3.15990j0&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8.

   
   

   Wikipedia (n.d.). Retrieved 29 June 2013. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hepatitis_A. 

Concept of Money and Identity

Daily new social media (NSM) I use are without question Facebook but also include Instagram (now Facebook-owned). I am not sure if GroupMe qualifies as a form of new social media, however my entire district's (work-related, eight corporate stores) communication now exists on GroupMe as opposed to email. Could be because of our 200MB Outlook mailbox limit or to our more mobile nature (smartphone vs desktop computer).

New social media has shaped my perspective of events just as it has anyone else's. In sales, it is a long-standing notion that what gets measured gets improved. If literally every media outlet around me that purposely creeps into all aspects of my life has an agenda let alone sales agenda, then I am bound by almost certainty to be influenced under the powers that be. 

The concept of information, sales and technology rule my current disposition despite conscious effort.

I want to know more about Google+ and Color. Facebook is selling me. It is Facebook's intent and reality in addicting me and selling me to internet creations for profit. Given my line of work and my personal experience, I am quite conscious of concepts of identity and sharing. I know about backups and restores, about profiles and linked accounts. Concerning is the wild race to consolidate accounts and all public sense of self. The work and personal is becoming further intertwined. I am worried to speak too much of myself as to give away my whereabouts, preferences and likeness. I am worried that these things that technology now dictates as my public identity will be stolen or misconstrued. We have been witness to the media darling start-ups of the world that create posts bringing awareness to and asking for help in dismantling (reporting) false accounts or likenesses. With invent of screenshots and their utter ease of use, it is nearly impossible not to share items exactly as the way you see them which is what we have been searching for all along. 

While a new social media identity is different than a financial one, they embody similar concepts of money and identity. An anonymous person or computer can hijack my likeness which by nature is uniquely my own and virtual belongings to which I have worked toward. The lines of ownership have blurred in this recent era of technology and wildfire-nature of information spreading. 

There are both positive and negative aspects of this recent wave of change. Positively speaking, end users are more informed than at any point in history before yet negatively speaking are held less accountable. Are things like Wikipedia more "true" because they are created by the people or are the people's opinions that inevitably shape interpretation of facts compromised because of 24-hour media access and arguably, overexposure? We need media and information checks and balances. We cannot forfeit all information ownership rights to corporations so we mediate them ourselves, yet we the people place emphasis and detail on those facts ultimately told to us are important or true. We won't allow ourselves to give up such freedoms to describe and interpret yet we under-question the nature and source of the gospel in which we choose to spread. 

Concept of money and identity - sales, security and self.