Knowledge for All!

The democratization of knowledge is known as the spread of knowledge to the common people. That has been in part to more resources being available to the public, beginning with the printing press, an invention lead to books being made in mass quantities and increasing the amount of people access to the information found inside. Knowledge was no longer available to only privileged elites such as those in clergy or academics, instead more of general public were given the chance to become “knowledgable” themselves. I find it both interesting and important to understand how we are able to gain so much info from all kinds of sources.

In the present both public libraries and modern digital technology has had an essential role in the democratization of information. Libraries provide communities with resources and tools to find information for free and provides un-biased information sources. The use of these media centers are seen as taking apart in citizenship and grants access to government services. Because the democratization of knowledge means providing information in a variety of formats, it also needs constant tending and revitalization with tons of new media available. As written in an article by the editors of Reference & User Services Quarterly, “the rise of the recording and broadcast industries in the twentieth century, and the development of the Internet itself were all forces for democratization,” and so, more information has never before been so easy to access.

With the internet having a central influence in our lives, it provides the fastest way to send and receive information of all kinds. Without it we would have to rely on others to spread info and be unable to look for it ourselves. Today, we can hop on to any website and catch up on content in forms of articles, videos, and pictures, all available on mobile devices. Although not all information found online may be true, the tools to prove it false or true are also available. It seems it is now harder to not find any info on a subject with so much already handy.

Sources:

Wallace, D. P., & Van Fleet, C. (2005). The Democratization of Information? Reference & User Services Quarterly, 45(2), 100–103.