Consciousness of disinformation (e.g.)

[Clifford Urr]

rjtiess at juno.com wrote:

>*** Internet bad source for health news, doctors say 
>
>People who use the Internet to look for self-help medical advice may 
>simply "drown in a sea of poor-quality information," doctors warned 
>Friday....
     
>This is a prime example of the dangerous nature of less-than-accurate 
>information.  It underscores, in bright red permanent ink, the 
>importance of promoting critical thinking skills and and instilling a 
>healthy skepticism in patrons toward Internet-based information.
     
      Well, "dangerous" could offer different significances in different 
      contexts.  The Web/Internet can, as an easy and quick medium for 
      transmitting information on medicine or anything else, provide 
      opportunities for information providers who can compete with doctors
      who provide information on their offices via face-to-face or phone. 
      
      The news article you cite is seasoned with a flavoring of 
      "danger" that seems misplaced: the real "danger" doctors are worried
      about, it seems to me in this article (which I read in full from 
      the web site), is MDs having to face honest competition from potentially 
      innovative information providers in this field. (MD's who make 
      blanket statements like this also seem to be the same ones who 
      condemn chiropractice or any other form of medicine that's not 
      imprimatured by their union or its equivalent in other countries, 
      the information-monopolistic AMA.) 
      
      Now that MD's have spoken, we can expect any day another
      news article - this time quoting lawyers - huffing and puffing 
      about the "bad legal information" made available on the net, all the
      while telling us how "concerned" they are about the harm this will 
      do the public. Then every other profession will have to line up
      to complain along the same lines, "There's bad engineering
      information, there's bad gardening information, there's bad 
      insurance information, there's bad architectural information on the 
      web, there's bad,bad,bad,bad..." Such complaints seem to come 
      from those who must feel quite threatened that their high-paying
      High Priest status as Keepers of the Secrets of (______name a 
      field) is going to be eroded by the web, which it is, and the
      rest of us will all be the better for it. 
      
      Cliff Urr, Senior Manager, Information Services
      2277 Research Blvd. MS-2A
      Rockville, MD 2050
      1-301-519-5828
      curr at aspensys.com