Navigating the marketplace

Freedom is one of the Internet's biggest lures. Because of its global and ethereal nature, the World Wide Web allows for a near total freedom of expression and ideas.

In the marketplace of ideas, truth will rise to the top. The errors, however, do not disappear, and often each individual has the responsibility to pluck the truths from the falsehoods. That takes work.

We were reminded of this recently when the history department at Middlebury College in Vermont decided to ban the use of Wikipedia as a source in students' history papers. As the New York Times reported, the decision came after a professor noticed several student papers asserting that the Jesuits supported the Shimabara Rebellion in Japan during the 17th century. That information was wrong, and the source of it was Wikipedia.

Wikipedia is the people's encyclopedia. Available only on-line, it has been written by volunteers and can be edited by virtually anyone. During the 2006 election, politicians had a heyday either rewriting the entries under their own names to omit unflattering facts, or rewriting their opponents' entries to add unflattering details, whether true or not.

The marketplace of ideas is a great filter for political thought, philosophies and other ideas. Facts, however, are not as fluid or subject to argument. The lesson every researcher — and everyone else who scans the Internet for information — should learn is to be skeptical and seek out sites where information is credible and verifiable. As with any information, even from a traditional written source in a traditional, tangible library, the researcher needs to verify and seek confirmation.

This is a subject near to the heart of a newspaper. Some people on the Internet are fond of bashing the "mainstream media," while discounting the gatekeeper role played by trained and experienced editors at such outlets. Most consumers, we hope, can distinguish the difference between information that is unsourced or unverified and information from news outlets that stake their reputations, and years of experience in the business, on what is reported. But we know that isn't true for everyone.

As professors and news professionals have learned, the marketplace doesn't always produce facts. That's a lesson for the general public, as well.