I didn’t get a lot from the rest of this article, but I really liked this thought:

As social networks shift our perceptions of authority, we have to guard against the problems that can arise when large numbers of people have access to information without context. Institutional authorities provided this context in the past. Now that another, more organic kind of authority plays a larger role in how and how quickly we receive information, we have a new responsibility to ensure that the reporting we share is accurate.

As we’ve lowered the barriers to entry for broadcasting your own voice, we’ve also eliminated many of the consequences for spreading misinformation. With no entity enforcing authenticity on the internet, which I’m not saying is a bad thing, the reader gains responsibility in measuring the trustworthiness of the content they read and lend credibility to by forwarding on to others. In an environment where the arguments of experts, agendas and armchair commentators often claim equal authority, without research or first hand experience, repetition can be powerfully persuading, but does not ensure veracity.