by GrofM

Created on: July 10, 2007

Sir Francis Bacon said that knowledge is power. I didn't know that before I began drafting this article, but I was able to look it up on the Internet. The ability to store, manipulate and retrieve information over the Internet is of incalculable value and potential. But also of very great potential danger if misused. It is no coincidence that the rise in concerns over the "privacy rights" of the individual have been rekindled with the development of the Internet.

Will it be possible to vote for state or federal officials over the Internet within the next 50 years? Perhaps - a more important question for today's society is, "What's the hold-up?" The answer to that question is that we aren't sure that what is published on or through the Internet is always accurate. This of course is not only true with respect to counting votes - it is true with respect to anything and everything on the Internet. Put another way, information is more easy to find in today's society than in any other period in history. But how do you know if it is true? In earlier eras, when news came through newspapers and journalists, there was an understanding that journalists had a code of ethics, professionalism and self-regulation which helped ensure that what was published was substantially accurate and true.

But what happens when the pool of potential journalists and publishers is anyone with access to the Internet? At some point, a quantitative difference makes a qualitative difference too - but this difference can cut either way (more or less quality). Supporters may argue that self-regulation continues to be alive and well - anyone who publishes something that is false is subject to criticism from all the other information outlets on the Internet. And this is true, so long as you know where to look. A hundred years ago, if a major news outlet published false information, one need only go to some of the other news outlets (and how many were there? 50? 100?) to get to the "truth." Today, there are millions of news outlets. Some may know where to go, others may not. In short, as always, getting to the "truth" requires time. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Knowledge is power.

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