3-2: Unrestricted Web Publishing

Evaluating the validity of information accessed online is important today because in a time where anyone has the ability to post information on the web, credibility must come into question.  Consumers must ask questions regarding whether the author has any expertise in the area he or she is writing about, what sources he or she is utilizing, and be able to identify whether any bias may be involved.  It is all well and good for a doctor to post on blogs and websites about a new miracle cure for weight loss, but if that doctor is not board-certified or has any experience beyond perhaps a medical degree obtained from a school with a less than stellar reputation, and the claims are not supported by any kind of research but merely a few anecdotal success stories that may or may not have been bought and paid for, the likelihood of those claims having any real sustainability are pretty small. 

For this exercise, I accessed an article from the New York Times website titled “House calls are making a comeback” by Milt Freudenheim, published online on April 19, 2014.  This article details the rise in the use of palliative care to treat those with chronic conditions that are not necessarily better addressed within a hospital setting.  Freudenheim has been the Times’ health care reporter for quite a while, since 1993, based on a Google search I did, and has been with the Times since 1979, based on his LinkedIn profile, so while he is not offering medical opinion, I believe his years of experience reporting on issues within the health care sector makes him a reliable source. 

Within the article, Freudenheim utilizes not only the experiences of patients who have utilized palliative care services, but also physicians who head the palliative care services departments of various well-regarded hospital systems throughout the country.  Palliative care is often confused with end of life or hospice care, a misconception that Freudenheim attempts to rectify within his article as he details the holistic approach to not only making and keeping patients comfortable and free from pain, but also attending to their mental well-being.  The article links to a study, completed in 2007, which tracks the level of satisfaction patients with terminal illnesses experienced with the use of palliative care services.  Today, doctors and health care organizations are using this model to expand the scope of service to cover patients who would benefit from such high touch care without the need to be in a hospital setting.  Within the palliative care spectrum, physicians and care managers work with primary care physicians and specialists including mental health specialists to manage the overall care of the patient to ensure that the quality of life is the highest possible.   All of this is done with the intended goal of not only caring for the patient, but lessening hospital re-admittance issues that can be so prevalent with patients with chronic conditions such as heart disease. 

With the passage and subsequent implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), there was much rhetoric surrounding what some perceived to be “death panels” within the bill, and a great deal of attention was paid to such claims.  However, under the ACA, Accountable Care Organizations, or ACOs, which are a by-product of the law, offer services such as palliative care, as a way to serve the needs of the patient and help to lower the health care costs associated with hospital stays.  While ACOs are an added level between the patient and their physicians, serving in a more administrative role, they hardly sounds like the supposed “death panels” that were being touted by those who opposed the ACA as a body of bureaucrats that would decide which patients would receive care and which would not, thus determining who would live and who would die.   As the process moves further along, articles such as this can only help to dispel the great deal of myth and misinformation that continues to surround this legislation even as more milestones toward its full implementation are passed.   However, as with all online resources, as Montecino states, “it is imperative for users of the Web to develop a critical eye to evaluate the credibility of Internet information” (1998). 

Freudenheim, M. (2014, April 19). House calls are making a comeback. Nytimes.com. Retrieved April 20, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/20/business/house-calls-are-making-a-comeback.html?ref=us

Montecino, V. (1998, August). Helpful hints to help you evaluate the credibility of web resources. Retrieved April 2014, from http://mason.gmu.edu/~montecin/web-eval-sites.htm

2-3 Social Media and Truth

Throughout my life, I have been a seeker of knowledge, and the majority of my knowledge has come from observation of the world around me.  The synthesis of that observation in order to know what I know, what informs my view of the world around me, my place within it, and how to go about living as a citizen of the world comes from a variety of sources including, but not limited to:  my family, my friends, my co-workers, my education, my work experiences, and my consumption of media.  The rise of social media means that this information is more readily available, and more easily consumed within the rush of modern life.  Trusting everything one sees on social media, however can be an illogical proposition, however, as identifying source material can require more involvement and more research. 

Today I learned that during the school stabbing that happened at a local school this past Wednesday, there were many incidents of heroism and quick thought that may very well have saved lives and prevented this incident from becoming more of a tragedy.  No one was killed during this incident, thanks in large part to the actions of several fast-acting students.  Based on a post on Facebook from the local CBS affiliate, I clicked on the article posted to their website, which detailed a student who helped to subdue the suspect, and another, who has himself been stabbed, who managed to pull the fire alarm, alerting students in other parts of the building to exit the building, which limited the number of students in danger.  A quick search of the school on Google pulls up multiple similar articles from the local newspapers here, as well as articles on both CNN and The Daily Beast.  As the small community fed by the school continues to make sense of a senseless act and move forward as a community and center of education, these tales of bravery help to give hope and comfort to the survivors and the community as a whole. 

Social media has value within our society, at times having provided a wealth of information, especially in times of chaos and despair.  However, the flaw inherent in social media is the fact that as Nick Bilton (NPR, 2010) pointed out, we have become what he termed “consumivores” whereby “we don’t just consume anymore, we consume and we regurgitate, we add our little note to it and we pull out the thing that is best”.  Whereas with newspaper reporting, information was vetted prior to the paper going to print, or facts verified before being broadcast over the air via radio or television, the instant access of social media provides for misinformation to be broadcast to an ever-increasing audience.  With the shift from information being provided by those within media itself, social media provides the opportunity for those who were previously the passive consumers to now be the providers of information, and with no stop gap in place before one posts information, misinformation can snowball and make its way through social media and become accepted as fact at an incredibly fast speed.  As with all sources of information, one must actively seek out what information is true and what is not, and verify, through multiple sources, what is fact. 

NPR ombudsman / new media [Interview by A. Shepard & N. Bilton]. (2010, September 15). Retrieved from http://wosu.org/2012/allsides/npr-ombudsman-new-media/

 

KDKA (Producer).  (2014, April 9).   Tales of heroism emerging from Franklin Regional high school chaos.  Retrieved from http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2014/04/09/tales-of-heroism-emerging-from-franklin-regional-high-school-chaos/?src=fb

1-5: Influence of the Media

In my daily life, I rely heavily on new media.  While I am working, I am connected online through my company’s VPN to access email, instant messaging, iPhone, and content via the web-based information including the database I use to perform a majority of my job as well as customer relationship management tools such as PULSE or ServiceNow to make requests from other departments.  During my work hours, I am very connected.  Outside of work hours, I am just as connected through my personal laptop, cell phone and Kindle tablet.  On a daily basis, I am reading emails for both work and personal business, as well as periodically checking in on Facebook, reading blogs, or checking news sites as time permits.  I realize that I spend a large part of my life “connected” and have recently come to the conclusion that I periodically need to take a step back from the technology and enjoy more simple things like a visit with my parents, or a conversation with my husband over dinner, or read a book.  I was starting to feel overwhelmed, as if I had this mountainous to do list that I just needed to conquer in addition to all of the other things I “have to do” on a daily basis.  It is hard, however, because at times I do feel as if I am missing something, but I know that I’m not going to miss anything earth-shattering if I do not constantly check my phone every five minutes. 

From my perspective, the use of new media has opened me up to a wealth of sources of information, which can be both negative and positive.  For one thing, I have learned not to take everything I see on new media as the absolute truth, as the end all be all of a particular story.  I have learned to search out alternative sources of information to counter something that I may have seen or read that just does not seem right.  I think this has helped to enhance my critical thinking skills, a skill that I realize I was not tapping into as much as I should have been.  My eyes have been opened to new perspectives on issues that affect others around the world, and exploring ways in which I can help in some small way.  For instance, I am an animal lover, and in recent years I have become a vegan while also becoming more active in educating others about causes such as animal rescue.  I have had a few friends approach me on Facebook and say that what I have posted has made them think when it comes to issues such as pet adoption or factory farming.  I am not trying to change the world, and I would never berate anyone for their personal choices, as I would expect them to offer me the same consideration, but learning that I have helped someone look at an issue in a different way is heartening to me.  Overall, I believe that we are living in a wonderful age where we have access to these tools and can affect real change to shape the world in which we live.  Of course there will be those who will abuse these tools, and use them for bad rather than good – trolls are everywhere, after all, and misinformation can proliferate – but that does not mean that the entire landscape is poisoned and unusable.