As many commentators have said, the Shirley Sherrod affair offers a number of important lessons, as well as issues that need to be examined and debated. One of them is the process by which information comes to us nowadays, and how we respond to what we see and read in an age where the traditional intermediaries—editors, producers and the like—are becoming extinct.
Often forgotten in the Sherrod saga is that it began when someone deviously edited a video for propaganda purposes. The scheme should have been stopped right there, but journalists—not to mention the NAACP and the Obama administration—were asleep at the wheel and gave life to the deception. At a time when anyone can edit a video, doctor a photo or cut-and-paste selected sections of an article or book, it is astonishing that that no news organization thought of investigating whether the Sherrod video had been tampered with.
I find this scary. It highlights the fact that the astonishing advances in communication technology—an
indisputable blessing overall—brings with it dangers that must be addressed. Journalists, authors and screenwriters, publishers, blog sites and news organizations—they all have to be extra vigilant now that information is so easy to come by and the pressure to produce and dispense it quickly is so intense. And readers and viewers have to be more wary than ever about how we respond to the deluge of information that crosses our paths.
indisputable blessing overall—brings with it dangers that must be addressed. Journalists, authors and screenwriters, publishers, blog sites and news organizations—they all have to be extra vigilant now that information is so easy to come by and the pressure to produce and dispense it quickly is so intense. And readers and viewers have to be more wary than ever about how we respond to the deluge of information that crosses our paths.Let me cite a personal example. I just completed a 350 page book for a major publisher. I researched it for more than three years, and I labored on draft after draft before turning it in. It was then edited, reworked by me, copy edited, revised again, typeset, reviewed by me and another editor, further refined and corrected, and then proofread yet again by me and the copy editor. At every stage, errors were corrected—including some that would have been exceedingly embarrassing to me if they had ended up in the book instead of being spotted by an alert editor who took the trouble to do some fact checking. And still, on the very last round, I found errors—not just minor typos and misspellings, which are inevitable, but two factual boo boos. One was made inadvertently by a copy editor along the way, and another had been made by me in my very first draft and had gone unnoticed until it caught my eye in the nick of time.
My point is, if this can happen in professional circumstances to a book whose author (I swear) went to great lengths to assure that his book is factually accurate, what can happen in the blogosphere, or in the brave new world of self-publishing, where professional editing is rare or non-existent? What can happen when videos are posted on YouTube or Photoshopped images are entered on a website or an e-zine? If writers with the best of intentions can make mistakes, as I once again discovered, those whose intentions are devious can wreak havoc with the truth. Studies show that 87% of bloggers do not even proofread their blogs before posting them, let alone check their facts.
All of this places new and unprecedented responsibility into the hands of everyone who communicates with others—and on everyone who reads anything, whether a book or a blog or an e-mail, or who views a photo or a video, especially online. Vigilance should be our motto as we move forward, as long as we still value the truth. I would advocate that readers refuse to purchase any book that has not been professionally edited.
And that includes this post. You know that study I cited two paragraphs ago? I made it up. Be honest: you believed me, didn’t you? Make sure you don’t quote me.
What a awesome 6 hour, thankyou to Dave and all the crew at Roudtuit Caravan park for all the work that went to running this event, well worth marking in the dairy for next yearZayıflama Lida Fx15 ve Biber Hapı zlfvbh burmeh yaza lida fx15 biber hapı ile formda girin burmeh yaza lida fx15 biber hapı ile formda girin Trakya Üniversitesi tabiii en önemliside bize baya bi para getirecek. his family and particularly the children he had artificially created will be happier and far better off without him, not to mention wealthier. Remember and play his music if you want..it was pretty good but don't for get what an absolute failure as man he was. He dies a whiny drug addicted loser.. Save your sorrow for someone worthy