Comparing quality in social media and traditional/mass media.

It is a fine line between what is true and what is false in today’s social media. Who decides what is right or wrong? This is a problem that does not exist in the same degree in traditional mass media like for example newspapers. It is easier for me as a reader of a magazine or newspaper to rely on the authors of the articles since I know that some kind of knowledge lies behind the statements they make, or at least I hope so. But here I can at least search the author if I feel insecure of what he is writing, something that is not possible in the same degree in social medias. In a social media like Wikipedia for example it is much harder to determine what is correct and what is not since we don’t know who the author of the texts is.

One problem that I have come across when studying is the issue of reliability in certain social media. When is it acceptable to use references from Internet in reports?
Many times it is hard to judge if the information you find on the Internet really counts as reliable in the teachers point of view since we all can judge things differently. I can admit that I have problems trusting information taken from for example Wikipedia in a report. Maybe not because I think the information is incorrect but rather that the source of the information does not feel trustworthy. Like I said earlier, I can not trace this information as easily as the author of a book or an article.

So then, who decides what is right and what is wrong? I think this is up to one another to judge if we believe something is true or false.
But hopefully this fine line of judging what is true and what is false will become easier in the future.