Everybody at the Gate

Everybody, it seems, wants to be a gatekeeper of the information flow in our modern world of communications.

Gatekeepers. The term has been long used to describe those who determine what we read, hear and view in the media.

In Venezuela a small earthquake injured no one, but ignited a war of words between President Hugo Chavez and Globovision. Whose story was it? Charge and countercharge were flung, becoming aftershocks that eclipsed the quake itself.

Enemies at the gate: Globovision and a Latin American head of state vying for control.

Meanwhile, Irish student Shane Fitzgerald pushed on the info gate only to watch it swing wide open. His fabricated news content clocked the speed that info travels and revealed fact-checking failures in the news industry. With news of the death of French composer Maurice Jarre, Fitzgerald crafted a Jarre quote and submitted it to the online, crowd-sourced Wikipedia.

Wikipedia editors wisely removed the quote, as it lacked attribution. When Fitzgerald placed it a few more times, the hoax quote was picked up and used by mainstream media outlets around the world.

Everyman (and everywoman) at the gate.

And the traditional gatekeepers – the mainstream media? Asleep at the gate. A seemingly innocuous incident, but packing a powerful punch: image stands taller than the reality.

Another weakness of the mainstream media – its disconnect with its audiences – is chronicled in Frank Rich’s recent editorial. Rich also defends however, the traditional media as any society’s best champion against tyranny. Then he delivers a sobering reality: we get the information we’re willing to pay for.

It is far easier to mail “the sky is falling” messages in e-mail or spread them virally in newer ways. (These can and should be verified before forwarding by checking snopes.com or other reputable sites.)

The sky falling and the sky's the limit. Gatekeepers galore and infinite information. And all free! (And so much is worth exactly that.)

When critical content is needed, we need to know what price we'll pay to know what is true.