Does the openness or democracy of the web increase the distribution of useful information or inaccurate, foolish, and biased information?

Julietta Phillips

Computer Ethics

Professor Dr. Robert Culver

December 7, 2012

When we talk about whether the web gives out the distribution of useful information it depends on where you pull the information from. Let’s take blogs for example, people that write blogs are basing it off their own opinions and what they believe in. Some blogs are extremely informative while some just do not make any sense. Most blogs provide news and their insights and others are just gossip and nonsense. People need to apprehend that bloggers are opinionated. The nature of blogging (and just the internet as a whole) reassures bloggers to post their immediate thoughts and reactions without taking the time to check for facts. Bloggers are not trained nor are they journalists. However, the question is does the internet help promote openness and democracy? The internet encourages partisanship. It helps people’s already-formed political position and tapering with society’s minds that the Internet causes. The Internet does NOT promote civilized, reasonable and rational debates on political issues that are at the core of democracy. The internet does open things up because it provides people with a convenient tool to do both good and bad things so yes the internet encourages openness, which is great. The internet has been a wonderful source for information seekers, in addition to sites maintained by the newspapers (AJC, WASHINGTON POST, AND WALL STREET) and there are untraditional sources ranging from videos, personal web pages and blogs to postings by interest groups of all kinds. However, be careful because online data can be tricky. Anyone can post an article, book, or opinion online without a second pair of eyes checking it for