“What’s an editor?”
As time rushes forward and we progress farther into the digital age we seem to be bathing ourselves furiously in, many things are shed or forgotten in relation to the technology itself–such as editing. It’s only natural for things to evolve and adapt as time moves on, but there are some things that need not change.
As if I haven’t said it enough already, there is no limit to the amount of voices swarming around the net today. Everybody feels entitled to throw their opinion, be it crudely spoken or fluently delivered, and there is no shortage of communication about it. With this though comes a great sacrifice. There is no filter to the majority of those posting. To most people, this is fine, as they can use the networking sites to their advantage to filter the undesirable material themselves.
However, this instant gratification of opinionated information is spreading into the digital print world. I’ve noticed a lot, as of recent, that information spread by any organization is seldom inspected. MSNBC reported inaccurately that Felix Baumgartner, the man who dove to the ground 128,000 feet, achieved a speed faster than the speed of light. Simple editing mistake, but drastic difference.
The age of the instant is slowly starting to spill over now. The way I see it, in another few years, credibility in general is going to take a steep hit. 24-hour news networks have never been the most reliable and accurate of news sources (in my opinion), but this problem is not exclusive to just them. I’ve seen recently on a few blog-related sites I follow, mainly tech-related nerd stuff (yeah, have a laugh!), that there are multiple misspellings of words, false information regarding some new technologies, and a plethora of other easy to avoid mistakes. It seems like everyone is more about being the first to talk about something, even if full of inaccuracies. I’d rather be completely versed in the information I want to share and display it in a professional and appreciative manner.
But I suppose I’m almost too old-fashioned for the age of the instant.