Wikipedia - Can we trust it?

Wikipedia is one of the most famous sites all over the world. It is a kind of encyclopedia in many languages and it consist of articles on various topics. It sounds really useful at first, but when we understand that everybody can change,edit or write articles there, we start to think that the information provided there is not so trustworthy. So, is this the truth?


When we hear the word 'encyclopedia' in our mind immediately pops up Encyclopedia Britannica.We used to trust it. According to an article, comparing Wikipedia and Encyclopedia Britannica, they both have a few inaccuracies. In other words, Wikipedia is almost reliable as Britannica.(BBC article about Wikipedia and Encyclopedia Britannica)
After the scandal presented in the same article , where a man purposely edited wrong information on Wikipedia to mislead a colleague and in this way tarnish one US journalist's reputation, Wikipedia's administrators changed the rules for editing information randomly. For example, the biographies of living people are semi-protected and can be edited by people whose account has been confirmed.

Another research conducted in Italy in 2010 showed that Wikipedia is the 6th most visited site in the world,which prove that people believe in the written there.Even though Wikipedia is still not claimed as a trustworthy resource of information and many scientists and teachers don't consider it as a reliable source of academic writing.

Wikileaks Scandalises the World

Wikileaks is a non-profit website that gained popularity in 2006 and the purpose of which is to reveal corruption, secrets and private documents of  countries all over the world. Most of the data, shared there, concerns US government and its national secrets. Moreover, the idea of the site is to encourage the democracy and inform ordinary people about what is going on in the country they live, what happens with the taxes they pay and what illegal deals the politics make.
Many politics criticise it because of its revealings, but Wikileaks also gains praise for the fact that it gives the citizens enough information and voice in the political life of their country.

 Firstly, everyone who wanted could take part in this site. It was free to add and free to read. Afterward it stopped the editing and comments made by the users. Even though, Wikileaks encourages the citizen journalism. As we can see from the video beneath sites like this inspire many public-spirited people to uncover the injustice.
As we can see, the head of Wikileaks, Julian Assange, explains that the world needs his site in the fight with the corruption and everyone who feels the moral obligation and have access to country's documents can help him.

Do we stay "the real us" in Cyberspace?

Everybody of us somehow once or more times was a part of a kind of a network society,a video game, a forum or just a site where we have to make our own profiles, choose nick names and avatars. In this way we decide how the others can see us, we chose the eyes they look through and create their general perception about us.

When we select our nick name in many cases we don't use our real name but names of our favourite person, movie personage , pet or just best-loved name we wish we had. Then we can include whatever information about us we want. For example, biography, date of birth, diaries, political and personal issues, photographs, address. We define who our friends and family are. And the questions here is " IS ALL THIS RIGHT?" You never know who have access to your personal data since we live in age where nothing is absolutely secure. There are hackers whose only purpose is to mislead people and use their records for illegal actions.

All of us always say "No, that will never happened to me" but we should take the precautions before it happens in real.( how to prevent from identity theft )


Another interesting fact is that we choose what we want to be according to the people who we will communicate with - our audience. For example, in MySpace we provide information about our music tastes, favourite singers and songs because we know that the others members of this site will search for people with the same music preference since Myspace emphasize on music preferences.On the other hand,  when we log on Facebook we supply the others with more personal information because we expect them to do the same in order to make friendships or to impress somebody. What is more, in pursuit of others' approval we even change personal information to fit in certain demands and requirements.
In other words, we change our "real us" in Cyberspaces sometimes purposely,sometimes unintentionally to present ourselves, to grab the others' attention or to deceive somebody. We put profile pictures, we link to sites and topics we are interested in, we publish songs and share our mood ( for example in Facebook ), we create a new version of ourselves, which embodies some of the characteristics we possess and the ones we dream to have.

Augmented Reality - What Does It Offer More to the Real World?

Today  we are fully surrounded by the technology. We cannot escape its impact on our everyday life.As a digital natives we get what we are offered for granted and completely use it. With the advance of the digital technology the reality is converged with a new , digital one.
Augmented Reality( AR ) - this is the new life. It combines in it the real world as we know it with the virtual one. We take part in this innovative way of thinking and perception of the world around us.
For example, there are special applications for your iPhone, which combine those two "realities" in order to facilitate us. ( Example of iPhone Innovation ) . This kind of convergence has been made with the aim that we can easily have access to necessary for us information with only one click on our phones.For example, we are able to find out where is the nearest restaurant,coffee,museum or theatre in a city we don't know.

It is , on the other hand, as the video says a bit contradictory ,because it is not possible to walk all the time with your phone in your hands and trying to observe the world around you.
Another implication of the AR is in most of the new computer games and they are absolutely engaged with this new reality. If the consumer wants to enjoy fully the game, he/she should wear special 3D glasses which enables the player to absorb in the game and forget about the surroundings. Moreover, games makers have created special gloves and suits, which enable the player to get into the game without sitting in front of the screen, but moving in order to run the character.

Furthermore, some advertisers use this method to familiarize the public with their products. It works very simple. The consumer needs just to put the right object in front of  the camera of the computer and it visualises  particular images on your desktop. ( AR in Advertising )
Augmented reality was used in the cinema since the late 1890s when a man called William Friese-Greene projected two movies at the same time and the audience had to look through a stereoscope to combine both projections. This early type of  3D was further developed and now we can enjoy the movies using those special 3D glasses.

  All these new generation technologies are made in order to improve the quality of life and make us fully enjoy them.

A Mobile Phone or a Personal Computer ?

Nowadays, the technology has made so rapid development that the new items we are offered converge two or more of the previous ones. In this way those, who we can call "old" , are out of use. For example, the generation mobile phones can offer the same as our personal computer, which wasn't possible with the first self phones at all.
Is this conception right? Let's look at it in terms of one particular site - Facebook. What can mobile Facebook gives you that the ordinary computer cannot and the opposite?

Firstly, we should consider the design of the site using those different means of technology.No matter with device you sign in Facebook , it is always painted in blue and white.These colours are used to hint that the site renders purity,security,innocence, peace and truth.When we use mobile Facebook we can see the logo of the site on the top left hand side. This information you can be received from the computer version as well. Then , right to the logo, we can see the main options that this particular site provides to its members. And here comes the differences between the two versions. While on the computer version you can see additional options and shortcuts on left, on the mobile version we cannot. What is more, the computer version shows all your friends publications whatever they are whereas the mobile one can expose all the applications available on this particular site.

Secondly, both versions have various functions. There are different games applications, which the user can open from the PC (Personal Computer) while many of them are locked for mobile phones ( except certain games such as FarmVille, which is accessible for IPhone ). The notifications are received in a form of a list from the mobile version and as little red balloons in the top left from the computer Facebook. There is a menu with options from the site that can be seen from the phone as well.

From the computer the user have access to Facebook chat which enables him/her to have a conversation with his friends. This functions is not approachable for phones.
Both versions give you the chance to upload pictures, videos from Youtube and post things on your wall.
To sum it up , both PC and Mobile Phone have their advantages and weakness. While the PC gives you a wider range of functions and possibilities, it keeps you home, in front of the computer. The Mobile Phone enables you to be in touch with your friends wherever you are with the only condition that there is Internet source.

Citizen Journalism - a New Way of Reporting the News

What is Citizen Journalism? It is a new phenomenon when ordinary people can take part in covering the news without being professionals in this area. In this way journalism is  not seen as a boring lecture but it lead the viewers,listeners, receivers of the information to participation in creating the news. There are special citizen journalism sites where everybody can edit, comment and put further materials about certain topic. Moreover, they are accessible to everybody who have Internet all over the world. Examples of such sites that are made especially for the purpose of this new method of reporting the news are http://www.globalreporter.com/  , http://www.backfence.com/ , http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Main_Page . Youtube is also such site because it gives its members to upload whatever videos they want on various topics.
With the advance of the technology citizen journalism became even more popular. People have the necessary equipment to furnish the others with details about  a particular event. What is more, with this kind of journalism we give voice to the democracy because everybody feels free to say their own opinion, to express their view, to stick to certain believes without being afraid  or punished. Even in countries with severe regimes where the media is regulated by the government this kind of reporting the news becomes more and more popular among people, who yearn for neutral, unbiased news. Of course, there countries such as China which still does not count the citizen journalism news as legitimate source of information.
( Citizen Journalist Deported from China )
What is more, in cases of natural disasters many people accidentally become journalism when they send photos and video materials to the official media. Such is the case with the floods in Pakistan in 2010 ( How citizen journalism turned into the main source of information in Pakistan)


Some people may say that this kind of journalism cannot be trusted because non-professionals report the news. To a certain extend they are right, but in that way the news are more understandable and approachable to the public. All the information is served in a easy to comprehend language, with everyday words and phrases.

 I firmly believe that this kind of new way of collecting data will become more and more popular in the next years. In this way people will get more involved in the process of creating the news and will make them more authoritative, reliable,unbiased and closer to ordinary people.

New Media vs Old Media

Our world never stops developing. Every single day something new is presented in order to facilitate our lives, to make the communications faster, to show us new and unknown horizons. The technology is everywhere and we cannot imagine our daily life without using it.

When we talk about the media developments, we usually call them "New Media". Very often we list the latest innovations in media technology as new without the realization that this "new" will become "old" tomorrow . Therefore, this approach is not appropriate because what me  reckon as "old" once was actually "new".
Today  Digitazation, Convergence, Remediation and Interactivity are obligatory parts of the development of what we call 'New Media'. With the digitazation, which makes the technological processes faster and simpler and in some ways loses of  information, the convergence that unifies different types of media to facilitate our lives, the interactivity which gives us control on the new media devices ( when, in what form,how much information we want to receive) and the remediation that engages us with the new technological developments 'New Media' is being constantly upgraded with the intention to make everything as easy as possible,to make it effortless.
In other words, it's not right to name a technology new because maybe tomorrow when something better is on the market it will be the new one.

The video argues that social networks such as Facebook have great impact on our lives. It outlines the fact that we provide our personal details and everyone who is part of this social network has access to them. Moreover, with the use of social networks we get involved in other people's lives and interrupt their own privacy.

Social Networks - an Enemy or a Friend?

Since our ancestors learned how to control the fire millions of years ago, human generation began to evolve and develop in every aspect of everyday life.We developed the writing system, the money as means of trade, electricity, photographing, cars, cinemas, television and so on, the list seems to be incessant until we get to the Internet - one of the greatest inventions of the twentieth century.
With the advent of the Internet minority of us had access to it. Don't you think today it's a bit different? Do you know somebody today who doesn't have Facebook or Twitter profile? The Internet is everywhere. We all became part of it and using it we find people,information and everything we need.
On one hand,we are facilitated to come across people with the same interest and share experience,feelings and opinions. We can find people from totally different cultures,countries and races.Using this social networks we communicate easily,saving sometimes time and physical efforts as well. Being part of a social network helps you to be in touch with our family, friends and colleagues.

On the other hand, this deep involvement in such a big society has its weakness. When you provide your personal details like date of birth,address and e-mail, they may be used by someone for illegal actions. What is more, there are people who can pretend to be you and misuse with your information.
Frequently, there are people whose aim is to get your money and try to abuse you.
Therefore, we should take into account to what extend we can trust in order not to be mislead.


It is only our choice !