Peers and Scholars
It was interesting to read about the process of publishing an article and what all it undergoes, including peer review. Peer Review is just the first step anyway. It is the “touchstone that separates rigorous research from mere opinion, hearsay, and the untutored opinions of your know-it-all roommate” (122). I’m glad the reading admits itself that the system isn’t perfect.
When it comes to getting evidence, look into the multiple studies and explore the scholar side of Google. Google Scholar is like Google but scholarly (like that explanation?). Google scholar can also be used to check on certain subjects’ reputations and whether an article is reputable or not based on how much it has been cited.
Wikipedia: Actually a Dear Friend
All I know now is that the middle teachers were wrong! Wikipedia has evolved now and is more careful on who edits the information on the site. Google even “poaches on Wikipedia to populate its knowledge panels” (138). Wikipedia is mostly a tool to assist with research since it is anchored by existing sources. Wanna check if a site is reputable? Hit up Wikipedia! Need ideas for some research? Wikipedia is an already made bibliography! It can be a friend, especially when checking for misinformation.
Playing Games with Video
For a chapter that is called Video Games, there weren’t any fun video games involved. I feel cheated. However, this is fine since instead I learned more about how the internet can be deceptive. This chapter tells us about how text can frame and influence how you see a video you have no context on. People immediately believe what they simply see with their eyes and don’t give it much thought, when they should look for the context behind it (just in case). If there isn’t much coverage on something, that means you should wait before jumping to conclusions.
People also use old footage as present footage. What tricky guys they are. I also learned that even conspiracists can be confused on what they believe in due to the lack of facts, and even sometimes the dots connect everything with was simply a set up. This can happen when “you feel like you’re drawing a picture yourself, directly from evidence, but in reality, you have been given the dots to connect and the order in which to connect them” (169-170). Sneaky. Also, the more cropped and clipped a video is, the more likely you’ll need to investigate further.
Dastardly Advertisers
I knew all these ads were up to no good. We ignored ads so much that they had to create Native ads to get our attention. They even had to make stealthy advertisements, which are super effective. Advertisement! Use Stealth! Super effective! They’re sneaky like that. Ads became a business and many were changed to look like editorial pages so they would go undetected and rack in that money.
Newspapers became ad agencies, ads started being sneaky with what is ‘recommended,’ and apparently foreign governments are paying A LOT to have their stories in digital publications. It got even worse when ads moved to social media and the labels disappeared. Make sure to Pause and Trace guys. Be careful out there soldiers. Those ads are ruthless.