Would creating an online form to access information globally abolish/devalue careers in writing/ journalism?

 

 

I agree with a lot of the articles point about how Internet is the most prominent way of sharing information; and I agree that knowledge should be free and accessible to anyone. When Goldsmith starts going on about how publishing houses don’t make authors rich, I agree- to an extent. Publishing a book today definitely does not make someone rich, but if everything that was ever published becomes available on the web, writing as a career would be devalued considerably. This means that anyone can write anything. Who’s deciding if it’s a credible source? Who has time to sift through loads of articles to find real information?

 

The reason a book gets published is because that piece of work underwent intensive creating and editing in order to be chosen as a worthy piece of knowledge to publish and put into the world. If the world of blogs and books mix, there will be an information overload on the Internet, and people will either have trouble differentiating, or not care enough to differentiate. Making the Internet a primary source for information seems a little unstable. When I walk into Barnes & Noble and pick up a book, I can be assured that this book went through hell and back in order to be placed onto that table; making it a valuable, reliable source. If society gets used to posting a thought on the web and calling it knowledge, the entire concept of knowledge will be devalued.

 

In an ideal world everyone would use the Internet for searching information because of interest/ research, but unfortunately the Internet is often abused. I also am incredibly bias because I’m a Literary Studies major at Lang, so books are my friends.