Information Diet

September 14, 2024

What is your information diet?

I am embarrassed to say that my information diet is quite limited due to a finicky palette. Most of my information is gathered from internet searches on Google, Facebook, X, and my husband. I wish I was more like my husband who does his due diligence when it comes to gathering news information. His approach to gathering news is similar to how we find contractors to do a service which is getting three quotes from different companies. Once he reads or hears a hot topic in the news, he goes to different sources to get the real story. Usually by the time any news reaches me, I ask if he has heard about it and he gives me the real scoop. Sometimes he lets me know about all the different versions of the story out there and helps me find the original source. It is very disturbing how news becomes so distorted and bent around the truth to fit the agenda of the news provider. From the beginning of time, people have sensationalized news to make money. Why change now?

As a school librarian, I will need to be more like my husband. I will have to make a point to research news items from different sources before sharing them in the library. Just like it was stated in our lecture that the library is the largest classroom in the school. With this in mind, I have to ensure that I can help not only students but also all of the teachers that I will be collaborating with to present true and verified information. One of the school library websites I evaluated this week had a whole page devoted to how users can spot misinformation and disinformation. It will be my responsibility to show library users the importance of not believing everything they find on the internet. I will also need to stress the importance of not relying solely on one source for news and important information. Much like Chauhan, said, it was quite the task during the pandemic to try and figure out the truth; “Making sense of information became crucial in a tangible and immediate way. It could mean the difference between whether you keep yourself and your loved ones safe and healthy or not” (2022). The pandemic is what opened my eyes to how much news and information can be stretched and twisted to cater to the needs of who presents it. Every citizen has the responsibility to dig deep and be critical of information.

Chauhan, B. (2022, November 17). Demystifying information literacy: From buzzword to usable resource. Smithsonian Libraries and Archives Blog. https://blog.library.si.edu/blog/2022/11/17/demystifying-information-literacy-from-buzzword-to-usable-resource/