Reading #1

Reading #1
“Web hoaxes, Counterfeit sites and other spurious information”
Paul S. Piper
This article explores how different types of information on the web can be misconstrued, incorrect, malicious, absurd, and accidental. Because the internet is free to everyone who has access, the chances that one will search and receive misinformation is greater than ever. Counterfeit sites are ones who information tries to pass as authentic. Some of these can be dangerous as the article gives one example of a hoax website on Martin Luther King Jr. which portrays disturbing or hateful messages. Spoofs can be innocent pranks meant to be funny. A news report from an Associated Press stated that deer had been dressed with orange vests to be disguised as humans. The Wall Street Journal, Fox News, and ESPN.com all reported on this story only to find out this news group did not exist at all. While no one was hurt, innocent pranks can lead to other more serious incidents. Disinformation is deliberately posting false information to influence those who read it. Some of the more serious internet hoaxes occurred after September 11th, with the creation of fake charity sites. These sites solicited money from grieving victims as a scam. To avoid scams and hoaxes like these on the internet, it is recommended that one researches the organization and explores the official charity website, stay away from solicitations you don’t recognize, and recognize that charitable organizations do not send out mass emails.

After reading this article, it is amazing to see what people can do to the internet and how unreliable the information is. I think that it is awful that fake organizations solicit donations from grieving victims and websites claim that the Holocaust never existed. But this article makes you realize that this information or “misinformation” is out there and recommends ways that you can avoid it and ignore the information that you read. You can’t trust everything you read and this article explains why. Gossip will always be interesting to people and cannot be avoided. However, everyone has the power to choose what they believe.