Avalanche Of Information Research Articles

Perception and opinion of the Ukrainian population regarding information manipulation: A field study on disinformation in the Ukrainian war

The war unleashed following the Russian invasion of the Ukrainian territory has provided an avalanche of information regarding military and strategic events, information which has conditioned policy making as well as the development of the current world order. Like any armed conflict, war not only takes place in the trenches and on the battlefields, but the weaponization of elements of disinformation and propaganda towards the general population and nation states can influence the outcome of the conflict as well. These elements might become powerful weapons that partly condition future events. This field study and research, carried out across Ukrainian territory, explores the perception by the Ukrainian people of information manipulation, taking into consideration different population groups. It should be noted that Ukrainians suffer from a constant and daily misinformation bombardment that seeks to undermine the morale of its people, yet elements of resilience in the form of a ‘strong and clear criterion’ regarding balance and imbalance of forces can still be found. As a result, this research examines the fundamental sources used by the Ukrainian population to obtain information, the use and reception of informative propaganda via social media, its critical analysis, the participation and interaction of the population in today’s global communication spaces, and finally, the level of credibility of both foreign and national media in depth. The themes discussed were explored via qualitative research during a series of oral interviews conducted with subjects directly related with the defence of the country, women, and higher education professionals. Our conclusions highlight the challenges that disinformation poses upon the Ukrainian population and its national and international organizations in the fight against information manipulation.

Digital health literacy and subjective wellbeing in the context of COVID-19: A cross-sectional study among university students in Ecuador.

The COVID-19 pandemic has generated an avalanche of information, which, if not properly addressed, generates uncertainty and limits healthy decision-making. On the other hand, the pandemic has exacerbated mental health problems among young people and adolescents, causing a worsening of their wellbeing. Previous studies have found that digital health literacy has a positive impact on people's attitudes toward the disease. This study aimed to analyze the association between digital health literacy on COVID-19 with subjective wellbeing in university students. A cross-sectional study was developed in 917 students from Ecuador. Subjective wellbeing was measured with the World Health Organization WellBeing Scale. Digital health literacy was assessed using the Spanish-translated version of the Digital Health Literacy Instrument adapted to the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Bivariate and multivariate linear regressions were performed. Digital health literacy and subjective wellbeing proofed to be significantly higher among males and among students with higher social status. The association between digital health literacy and subjective wellbeing was significant; for each increase of one point in the digital health literacy scale, an average increase of 9.64 points could be observed on the subjective wellbeing scale (IC 95% 5.61 - 13.67, p-value <0.001). This correlation persisted after adjust by demographic and socioeconomic variables. Improving digital health literacy in health would improve the subjective wellbeing of university students. It is suggested strengthen the digital health literacy through public and university policies that promote access, search skills and discernment of digital information. Socioeconomic and gender inequalities related to digital health literacy need to be further investigated.

PSYCHOLOGICAL IMPACT OF SATURATION COVERAGE CAUSED BY MEDIA DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC AMONGST THE GENERAL PUBLIC IN INDIA

Introduction: As India battles a renewed wave of the Covid pandemic driven by newer strains of the virus, answers were sought for the paradox of the course taken by this disease in a nation of 1.4 billion that has so far reported among the lowest rate of mortality per million population while the media-driven perceptions in a country with long democratic traditions sound an alarming picture. This study was initiated to nd out the perceptions of a segment of the Indian general population as they nd themselves exposed to high voltage carpet coverage of pandemic related news powered in so small measure by the internet-data powered smart phone era in contrast to the earlier pandemic two decades ago and the one witnessed nearly a century ago. This study reveals that social media does exaggerate reality by the sheer avalanche of information and the study subjects seem to agree for the need to bring about some degree of control mechanism in the best interests of all stakeholders. Data was collected from 731 participants from all states of India by means of aMethodology: questionnaire made using Google Forms. On analysis of our data, we found that media coverage regarding the COVID-19 pandemic,Results: due to the widespread misinformation, has contributed to the spread of panic, anxiety, and hysteria. With this fear being psychological (39.9%) in a signicant number of people, more so in the older age groups. One of the most crucial ndings in our study was that a majority of the study population (65.9%) agreed that there should be lters set up on what is being posted on social media about news related to COVID-19. Conclusion: Despite mass media's great benet in amassing relevant data, it sometimes serves as a source for the generation, manipulation, and distribution of misinformation leading to widespread panic and stress among the public.

VOCABULAIRE TERMINOLOGIQUE : FONCTIONS ET SPECIFICITE D'USAGE ESSENCE SEMANTIQUE DU TERM

The development of science and technology, the emergence of new fields of science is always accompanied by the emergence of many new terms. Consequently, terminology is one of the most dynamic, fast-growing and rapidly changing parts of the national dictionary. Modern scientists point out that the rapid pace of the scientific and technological revolution in recent decades has led to and continues to grow like an avalanche of information in all areas of knowledge, production and scientific activity. The article analyzes the impact of these processes on the structure of modern French.

АКТУАЛЬНІ ТЕНДЕНЦІЇ СОЦІОКУЛЬТУРНОГО РОЗВИТКУ І ПЕРСПЕКТИВИ СУЧАСНОЇ ОСВІТИ

Introduction, The initial thesis of the study is the statement of the fact that socio-cultural and educational processes are inextricably linked and mutually determined. In this regard, it is promising to consider current trends in socio-cultural development as important determinants for the development of modern education. The purpose of the research is a systematization of current trends in socio-cultural development as determinants of modern education. The research methods are determined by the theoretical nature of research, with the involvement of general theoretical and analytical research methods. The results of the research show that understanding of the content of socio-cultural transformations today and in the future, first, paves the way for the most appropriate and productive use of traditional and innovative educational technologies in practical teaching through the most acceptable combination of elements of already known systems and technologies, methods of teaching and education, and secondly, allows to determine the main strategic guidelines of philosophical and pedagogical research. The originality of the research lies in the fact that the paper reveals correlations between certain trends in socio-cultural development and promising educational strategies or practical approaches. It is shown that immersion in the discourse of modern socio-cultural development contributes to the formation of a fundamentally new understanding of the methodology of modern education as a multimethodology. Conclusions: the research identified the following trends in socio-cultural development: 1) the emergence of new thinking, awareness of the new role and place of man in the world; 2) intensive development of human sciences; 3) changing the socio-political situation in the world; 4) change in socio-economic conditions of human life; 5) more tolerant attitude (tolerance) to the manifestation of unusual thoughts, behavior and appearance of individuals; 6) avalanche of information and change of means of communication; 7) the need to constantly learn, retrain, change your life; 8) increasing the educational level of the population and educational qualifications. These trends are important determinants of modern education

Metabolomics-Based Screening of Inborn Errors of Metabolism: Enhancing Clinical Application with a Robust Computational Pipeline.

Inborn errors of metabolism (IEM) are inherited conditions caused by genetic defects in enzymes or cofactors. These defects result in a specific metabolic fingerprint in patient body fluids, showing accumulation of substrate or lack of an end-product of the defective enzymatic step. Untargeted metabolomics has evolved as a high throughput methodology offering a comprehensive readout of this metabolic fingerprint. This makes it a promising tool for diagnostic screening of IEM patients. However, the size and complexity of metabolomics data have posed a challenge in translating this avalanche of information into knowledge, particularly for clinical application. We have previously established next-generation metabolic screening (NGMS) as a metabolomics-based diagnostic tool for analyzing plasma of individual IEM-suspected patients. To fully exploit the clinical potential of NGMS, we present a computational pipeline to streamline the analysis of untargeted metabolomics data. This pipeline allows for time-efficient and reproducible data analysis, compatible with ISO:15189 accredited clinical diagnostics. The pipeline implements a combination of tools embedded in a workflow environment for large-scale clinical metabolomics data analysis. The accompanying graphical user interface aids end-users from a diagnostic laboratory for efficient data interpretation and reporting. We also demonstrate the application of this pipeline with a case study and discuss future prospects.

Vaccine against COVID-19

La pandemia por COVID-19 ha producido en nuestra sociedad un colapso sanitario, económico y psicológico enorme. Los sanitarios han tenido que enfrentarse a uno de los mayores retos en la historia, tratando de señalar a la población cómo enfrentarse a esta enfermedad. Hemos aprendido que las vacunas suponen el gran instrumento para lucha contra las enfermedades infecciosas y empezaron a aparecer un gran número de ellas, no como producto de la casualidad sino como producto del enorme avance experimentado en os últimos años con las vacunas frente a nuevas enfermedades infecciosas, frente a otras enfermedades como el Alzheimer y especialmente frente al cáncer. Todo este conocimiento se ha aplicado a esta enfermedad. Los médicos se lamentaban de la escasa información que disponían ante las preguntas de los pacientes. Este documento quiso ser una respuesta ante esas inquietudes, con un afán científico, con evidencias que pusieran de lado los datos sin comprobar y los bulos. Ante una avalancha de información, mucha de ella sin la adecuada revisión por expertos, como se señala en la introducción, cualquier publicación queda obsoleta en el momento de publicarse, y optamos por una publicación “on line”, con la incorporación de versiones. Esta publicación “on line” se ha ido publicando en los documentos de la Sociedad Española de Quimioterapia, en https://seq.es/vacunacion-covid-19.

Interoperability and Synchronization Management of Blockchain-Based Decentralized e-Health System

A huge amount of data, generated by different applications in computer network, is growing up exponentially based on nonstop operational states. Such applications are generating an avalanche of information that is disruptive for predictable data processing and analytics functionality, which is perfectly handled by the cloud before explosion growth of Big Data. Blockchain technology alleviates the reliance on a centralized authority to certify information integrity and ownership, as well as mediate transactions and exchange of digital assets, while enabling secure and pseudo-anonymous transactions along with agreements directly between interacting parties. It possesses key properties, such as immutability, decentralization, and transparency that potentially address pressing issues in healthcare, such as incomplete records at point of care and difficult access to patients’ own health information. An efficient and effective healthcare system requires interoperability, which allows software apps and technology platforms to communicate securely and seamlessly, exchange data, and use the exchanged data across health organizations and app vendors. Unfortunately, healthcare today suffers from fragmented data, delayed communications, and disparate workflow tools caused by the lack of interoperability. Blockchain offers the opportunity to enable access to longitudinal, complete, and tamper-aware medical records that are stored in fragmented systems in a secure and pseudo-anonymous fashion. The proposed work carried out blockchain implementation in distributed computing environment and it also provide the automatic recovery of invalid chain. This also determines the impact of those security issues and possible solutions, providing future security-relevant directions to those responsible for designing, developing, and maintaining distributed systems.

Концепция ценностей А. Маслоу и возможности ее применения

In the modern information society a man is in the flow of a dynamic life. An avalanche of information falls on him, which has a strong impact on his consciousness. In this situation the question of human values becomes particularly relevant. The relevance of the values’ problem draws attention to the concepts that reveal new aspects in the determination, formation and functioning of values. Regarding it the A. Maslow’s concept of values, built by a researcher in the XX century on the basis of psychology, is of interest. The purpose of the research is to reveal the main provisions of the A. Maslow’s concept of values highlighting the moments of novelty in them, and to show its influence on the certain cultural phenomena, in particular astrology. The analysis of astrology is based on the material of works of D. Rudhyar, the famous philosopher and astrologer. Within the research such methods of humanitarian knowledge as the method of comparison, analysis and synthesis are used. It is need to separately note the method of philosophical hermeneutics, the main elements of which are understanding and interpretation of the text. The study of the A. Maslow’s concept of values and the possibilities of its application in culture allows us to outline the new ways of entering the applied axiology, which is closely related to the inner man. A new determinant of the genesis of values – psychological – is discovered. A. Maslow reveals that the basis of the formation of values is the person’s needs and abilities. It is on their basis the valuable and significant for a person is formed. An attempt is made to move the issue of developing values from a purely descriptive plane to a practical one, eliminating the gap between «what is» and «what should be». It is revealed the usefulness of applying the A. Maslow’s concept of values with the example of astrology, which is not exclusively descriptive but involves an active practical application of it by a person. Moreover, based on that, markers of human interests and his receptivity to various cultural phenomena, in particular, astrology, are identified. The revealed features give a new way of looking at the explanation of the reasons for modern people hobbies and addictions to different non-scientific ways of mastering the world, including astrology. The research seems to be significant for further investigation of the forms and methods of human mastering the world and his interests in various aspects of modern cultural life.

COVID-19 Infodemic

Journalism like many other professions is facing a crucial phase with the emergence of Coronavirus pandemic. The impact of Coronavirus phenomenon is enormous on social and cultural relationships of many communities who depend on the media for information to connect with each other and participate in governance freely. Journalists globally are facing enormous crisis of managing the infodemic of the pandemic streaming particularly from social media; as well as controversies of the media perpetuating disinfodemic or disinformation and distrust in the society. Besides arrests and restrictions of movement, journalists are also under intense threats of losing their jobs, and exacerbated psychological and physical pressures owing to the devastating effects of COVID-19. Using the Social Responsibility theory, that emphasises improved standards of journalism, safeguarding the interests of journalism and journalists among others, and the Agenda setting theory, that controls access to news, information, and entertainment; this research interrogates how journalists from selected states in Northern Nigeria are responding to the challenges of reportage of COVID-19. This research sampled the views of journalists using structured questionnaire administered online and interviewed seven senior journalists holding managerial positions. Findings revealed that journalists are embracing fact checking of the avalanche of information even within familiar sources to verify reports on COVID-19. Similarly, they are deploying digital and multimedia strategies to provide a continuum of media services and sensitive reporting to engage this new infodemic of COVID-19, now globally considered the “new normal”. This research recommends that, since COVID-19 is a novel disease, professionals across countries need to talk with each other, and journalists particularly from Africa and indeed Nigeria; need to put some structure and some science in place, especially in the performance of their jobs, so that professionalism can be sustained without compromising the future of the journalism.

Maladaptive coping with the infodemic and sleep disturbance in the COVID-19 pandemic.

COVID‐19 is caused by a novel virus with an unknown aetiology. People across the globe are dealing with not only a health crisis but also an ‘infodemic’, a term coined by the World Health Organization to refer to the avalanche of contradictory information that is arousing widespread confusion and anxiety. This study aimed to examine the prevalence of anxiety and sleep disturbance at the early stage of the pandemic, and unveil the information coping process underlying differential susceptibility to COVID‐19 infection anxiety and sleep disturbance. The participants were 1,270 adults (47% men, M age = 42.82) from the UK and US who completed initial (Time 1) and follow‐up (Time 2) surveys from 16 to 22 March and 18 to 24 May 2020, respectively. The prevalence of probable clinically relevant anxiety was 61% and 45% at the first and second time points, and more than half of the participants in this anxiety group also reported mild to severe sleep disturbance. Moreover, 41% of the participants perceived themselves as not having enough COVID‐19‐related information and reported higher levels of COVID‐19 infection anxiety and sleep disturbance over time than those who perceived themselves as having enough of such information. Moderated mediation analysis identified two groups who were more vulnerable to both psychological problems: high blunters who sought COVID‐19‐related information online more frequently and high monitors who sought such information offline less frequently. These findings highlight the importance of a good match between information coping style and strategy deployment in dealing with an infodemic surrounding a novel disease.

Information literacy competence in curtailing fake news about the COVID-19 pandemic among undergraduates in Nigeria

PurposeThe continuous spread of the corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has generated public health concern with avalanche of information accompanied by series of fake news. Thus, this study examined the effect of Information Literacy Competency (ILC) in curtailing the spread of fake news among Library and Information Science (LIS) undergraduates in Nigeria.Design/methodology/approachSurvey research design of the descriptive type was used to generate data from a group of LIS undergraduates online. The population of the study consisted of 138 LIS undergraduate students who participated in the survey (thus, n = 138). The data retrieved was subjected to descriptive analysis.FindingsThe study revealed that the students had high level of ILC (x ¯ = 3.42), and there was low prevalence level of COVID-19 pandemic fake news (x ¯ = 2.35) among them. The major causes of COVID-19 fake news were too much information in circulation concerning COVID-19 (x ¯ = 3.44) and the resultant inability to discern or spot fake news from verified and authentic news (x ¯ = 3.28). The study also revealed that ILC had a significant effect in curtailing the spread of COVID-19 fake news with a grand mean of 3.28 against the criterion mean of 2.5. It is implied that LIS undergraduates are educationally position to acquire ILC which is crucial to their identification of fake news and helps to curtail its spread.Research limitations/implicationsThe study is limited in its use of online group for data elicitation within a limited period of three weeks. Also, in its adoption of self-evaluation scale to measure ILC instead of standard information literacy test. Also, the high chances of social desirability bias in sections C and E serve as a limitation to the study.Practical implicationsThe study reinforces the need to enhance structures that flags fake news on social media platforms and integrating IL into schools’ curriculum at all levels.Originality/valueThis study seeks to pioneer a new area of focus on the relevance of ILC to different global issues that concern the health and well-being.

The cardiac complications of COVID-19: many publications, multiple uncertainties.

Since the first description of COVID-19 in December 2019, more than 63,000 publications have described its virology, clinical course, management, treatment and prevention. Most physicians are now encountering, or will soon encounter, patients with COVID-19 and must attempt to simultaneously assimilate this avalanche of information while managing an entirely novel disease with few guiding precedents. It is increasingly clear that, although primarily a respiratory illness, COVID-19 is associated with cardiovascular complications. However, the true incidence of direct cardiac complications remains unclear, as all complications thus far reported can also occur in patients without COVID-19. In this review, we briefly summarise and critically appraise the data on cardiac complications associated with COVID-19 and describe some cases from our own experience. We identify unresolved questions and highlight the many uncertainties in this developing field.

An Overview of Bioinformatics Tools for DNA Meta-Barcoding Analysis of Microbial Communities of Bioaerosols: Digest for Microbiologists.

High-throughput DNA sequencing (HTS) has changed our understanding of the microbial composition present in a wide range of environments. Applying HTS methods to air samples from different environments allows the identification and quantification (relative abundance) of the microorganisms present and gives a better understanding of human exposure to indoor and outdoor bioaerosols. To make full use of the avalanche of information made available by these sequences, repeated measurements must be taken, community composition described, error estimates made, correlations of microbiota with covariates (variables) must be examined, and increasingly sophisticated statistical tests must be conducted, all by using bioinformatics tools. Knowing which analysis to conduct and which tools to apply remains confusing for bioaerosol scientists, as a litany of tools and data resources are now available for characterizing microbial communities. The goal of this review paper is to offer a guided tour through the bioinformatics tools that are useful in studying the microbial ecology of bioaerosols. This work explains microbial ecology features like alpha and beta diversity, multivariate analyses, differential abundances, taxonomic analyses, visualization tools and statistical tests using bioinformatics tools for bioaerosol scientists new to the field. It illustrates and promotes the use of selected bioinformatic tools in the study of bioaerosols and serves as a good source for learning the “dos and don’ts” involved in conducting a precise microbial ecology study.

Rapid Evidence Reviews for the Philippine COVID-19 Crisis

One of the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic is an avalanche of information that is unprecedented in magnitude. In the past 2 months, healthcare providers, policy-makers and the general public have been overwhelmed by this phenomenon. Aside from usual news from TV, radio, newspapers and medical journals, people from all walks of life have had to process kilometric threads on viber, facebook and twitter, as well as hundreds of issuances from all government agencies - from the Office of the President down to the barangays. The information from these various sources are often inconsistent or conflicting, and are always rapidly evolving. New information emerges as outdated information is just beginning to circulate. To aggravate the situation, the chaos is taken advantage of by perpetrators of false information. Clearly, this “informageddon” has led to “information overload” – the inability to process facts because of volume or pace. The manifestation is the widespread panic we are witnessing from all sectors of society. The consequence is impaired decision making – by individuals, families, communities and policy makers. Ultimately, this may lead to a prolonged, uncontrolled pandemic characterized by avoidable deaths, disability, and huge social and economic costs. Even healthcare providers are affected. Because of fear, many feel pressured to do tests and give treatments for COVID-19, that are poorly tested for effectiveness and safety. To help manage the information for policy-makers, healthcare workers and the general public, a group of 70 clinical epidemiologists and health professionals gathered together from the Institute of Clinical Epidemiology, National Institutes of Health-UP Manila and the Asia-Pacific Center for Evidence Based Healthcare Inc. The group conducted voluntary rapid evidence reviews and referred to themselves as “The Rappers”. The reviews were graciously shared by Philippine Society of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases through their website (PSMID.org). The online version allowed regular and rapid updates as evidence accrued.

21 Metadata Platforms and Reports for the 21st Century Pandemic.

With the outbreak of COVID-19, we are experiencing an avalanche of information from various platforms to fight against this pandemic. Although a good thing at the time of such crisis, it is becoming overwhelming for researchers to differentiate between legitimate literature for academic pursuit against tabloid information and fake news. To combat this dilemma, this list of 21 web links has been curated that provides meta-information and reporting insights from worldwide credible primary and secondary sources. It is to be noted that this list is by no means completely exhaustive, yet provides a sufficient base for researchers to start off with literature search for further results and innovations specific to COVID-19 pandemic.

Promoting immunization resiliency in the digital information age.

The avalanche of online information on immunization is having a major impact on the percentage of the population who choose to get vaccinated. Vaccine misinformation spreads widely with the interactive Web 2.0 and social media; this can bury science-based information. A plethora of immunization misinformation online is affecting trust in health care professionals and in public immunization programs. There are no simple solutions to this, but seven evidence-based strategies can help. First, listen to patients' and parents' concerns, and demonstrate responsiveness by adopting best immunization practices, such as pain mitigation. Second, recognize and alert others to anti-immunization tactics, namely, conspiracy theories, fake experts, selectivity, demands that vaccines be 100% safe and effective, misrepresentation and false logic. Third, avoid unproductive debates with those who have strongly held views, both in person and when using social media. Be respectful, stick to your key message, identify where to find useful information and exit. Fourth, consider establishing an attractive, easily searchable online presence that reflects the complex art of persuasion. Emphasize the benefits of vaccine, use reader-friendly graphics and highlight facts with stories to strengthen your case. Fifth, work with social media platform providers, not to stifle freedom of expression, but to help ensure that misinformation is not favoured in searches. Sixth, promote curriculum development in the schools to improve students' understanding of the benefits and safety of immunization and to foster critical thinking skills. To do this, optimize the use of age-appropriate comics and interactive learning tools such as electronic games. Seventh, to shift the narrative in specific communities with low vaccination rates, work with community leaders to build tailored programs that foster trust and reflect local values.

Dentistry during and after COVID-19 Pandemic: Pediatric Considerations.

This article is a rumination on the outbreak of the dreaded coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic which has engulfed both the developed and the developing countries, thereby causing widespread global public health concerns and threats to human lives. Although countries have made varied efforts, the pestilence is escalating due to the high infectivity. It is highly likely that dental professionals in upcoming days will come across COVID-19 patients and SARS-CoV-2 carriers, and hence must ensure a tactful handling of such patients to prevent its nosocomial spread. Despite the avalanche of information that has exploded in relation to this rapidly spreading disease, there is a lack of consolidated information to guide dentists regarding clinical management including precautions to take materials to use and postprocedure care, during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Available sources of information have been analyzed, while relying on peer-reviewed reports followed by information available from the most respected authoritative sources, such as WHO, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and ADA. This review aims to provide a comprehensive summary from the available literature on COVID-19, its insinuation in dentistry, recommendations that have been published, and the actual in-practice implications, so a plan can be formulated and adapted to the circumstances of each dental practice during the pandemic and the times to follow.How to cite this articleKochhar AS, Bhasin R, Kochhar GK, et al. Dentistry during and after COVID-19 Pandemic: Pediatric Considerations. Int J Clin Pediatr Dent 2020;13(4):399–406.

Modernist Fiction and News: Representing Experience in the Early Twentieth Century by David Rando

Reviewed by: Modernist Fiction and News: Representing Experience in the Early Twentieth Century by David Rando Mark S. Morrisson (bio) MODERNIST FICTION AND NEWS: REPRESENTING EXPERIENCE IN THE EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY, by David Rando. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011. 208 pp. $80.00. That we live in an "information age" has been repeated so often it has lost some of its force to impress or disturb. Yet terms such as "personal," "human experience," "memory," and even "history" are still troubled by the possibilities of an abundance of information [End Page 452] almost beyond our comprehension. In 1985, a character in Don DeLillo's White Noise could smugly proclaim, "[Y]ou are the sum total of your data. No man escapes that."1 Twenty years later, the futurist prophet of a technological singularity, Ray Kurzweill, announced with zeal that rapidly accelerating technological change would "rupture the fabric of human history."2 It goes without saying that the media contribute greatly to our information saturation, shaping our consumption of information, data, and news. But media members themselves must constantly adapt to technology-driven changes. The impact of the twenty-four-hour cable news cycle on our civil society seems almost a quaint concern in the face of the blogosphere, social-media-driven lives, and an internet accessed by more than a billion people, downloading perhaps as much as two hundred terabytes of information per second. And, for the first time since the seventeenth century, the very survival of print media is truly in question. But concern about the impact of media-driven information on human experience is not unique to the internet age. In his thought-provoking monograph Modernist Fiction and News, David Rando reminds us that "[t]he early twentieth century was the first period to face the impossibility of adequately storing, remembering, and prioritizing the avalanche of information that new recording technologies and mass communication networks pressed upon consciousness, thereby altering not only human experience but also reality itself" (1). Newspapers were a major component of the modernist period's proliferation of information. While European newspapers date back to the seventeenth century, by the modernist era, news barons such as Lord Northcliffe and William Randolph Hearst had transformed them utterly into enormous institutions, on a scale that would have been unimaginable even a century earlier. According to Rando, Northcliffe fancied that his publishing empire might "extend its purview to life as a whole" (2),3 and he argues that modernist writers understood that the rapidly changing media of their era fundamentally challenged humans' abilities to process experience. The scope of information and the rapidity with which it can be shared has changed vastly since the modernist era, but Rando passionately and convincingly proclaims that this modernist response offers our era something important. Rather than falling into simplistic, dated binaries such as literature versus journalism or high culture versus mass culture, Rando accepts as a given that the news media weighed on modernists as they sought a role for the novel in twentieth-century culture. With his stylish and lucid prose, Rando then traces this concern through classics of modernist difficulty—Virginia Woolf's "Sympathy" and "The Mark on the Wall," Joyce's Finnegans Wake, John Dos Passos's U.S.A., and Gertrude Stein's Everybody's Autobiography and Wars I Have Seen.4 [End Page 453] Difficulty, then, does not become the mark of high culture but, rather, a way of responding to informational overload. Rando's interpretive framework is largely based on Walter Benjamin's diagnosis of a shift at the heart of modernity from Erfahrung, which emphasizes the accumulation of lived experience, to Erlebnis, "'immediate'" or "'living'" experience (1).5 Readers of the JJQ will be interested to note Rando's emphasis on Finnegans Wake, rather than the more commonly explored Ulysses, as a response to the news—in this case, to scandal-reporting. Rando reads the Wake's episodic structure as elaborating on the possibilities of Benjamin's understanding of anecdote. Seen through this lens, the experience of scandal animates the Wake, which "springs scandal upon its readers anecdotally, in such a way that facts and actors remain primarily elusive but something of the experience of...

Technology and the self: A new deity

Summary This paper examines the increasing focus on the Self, the connection with technology as a defining factor in the meaning of being in the twenty-first century. More people interact with technology than ever before. Networked technology, with its many indisputable benefits, also shapes the understanding of personhood and perhaps redefines it. Social engagement, such as relationships and interactions, so essential to personhood, has been devalued and focused on self-awareness and a curated self-expression. Technological algorithms and assessments centered around personal characteristics have born an entirely new relationship for individuals. The desire to understand the Self has brought about the development of technologies that reduce the meaning of being into calculable form. The instant gratification produced by algorithm has created an obsession with the “understanding” of one's self. People are turning to technology as a new form of religion, guiding their actions and increasingly narcissistic motives. This societal transformation has exacerbated the need for moral awareness with its inevitable ethical side-effects. Is artificial intelligence a new expression of godhood that separates humankind from the I–Thou relationship? Is moral capacity for truth shrinking in the face of an avalanche of incoming information?