The internet is a wonderful thing, it connects people to the world around them, and around others as well. The benefits are incredible, but there still are issues surrounding how we and others use this great invention.

One of the biggest issues we face is news, and reporting. Journalism has finally come full circle, and most news is spread via the web, even by well known journalists. Newsprint and the 6 o’clock news have turned into online news and twitter feeds.

The updates are faster, more easily accessible, free, but with these advantages comes one big disadvantage: credibility.

If we get our news from these sources, who’s to say the journalists reporting back to us aren’t using the same tools we are? And who’s to say that that source is credible?

Comments on internet articles make it immensely easier for those in the know to correct information, or indulge on information given to remove bias, or to set the record straight.

But those in the know can’t be every where, correcting all the biased or incorrect articles. We need another system.

We need a system, not dissimilar to that used by teachers and professors to check that an essay hasn’t been copied from another source. Something that checks where the information came from, and the relevance and credibility of said source.

A study conducted by a university, or committee will, and should, hold more sway than a publicly edited wiki article, for example.

This will force journalists to check and re-check their sources, and present a better product and better information.

Another facet could be to check the amount and locations of the sources.

An article which pulls heavily from one committee’s findings, yet ignores another reports findings, likely for sake of bias, is not a credible news source, and should not deserve to be considered as such.

With the wide world of the internet, and all that it gives us, one thing we need is credible journalism, but certain measures have to be put in place to force journalistic integrity, and to push for unbiased and correct information in articles.

We need a system, and we need it now.

Any ideas on how to implement this system? Or how we can push for more journalistic integrity?

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Well today’s Friday, the day everyone seems to look forward to in the week.

Working for the weekend, to our time away from vocation, and spend some time doing what we really want.

Now, there are two problems here.

The first being: that there should be some joy in the work you do. Accomplishing something, and especially contributing to society all have their benefits for the ego. Its likely that this has been forgotten in the day-to-day shuffling of the business world, but try to remember why you got into it in the first place.

The second: the weekend just isn’t long enough.

I know the second point goes against what I just said, but there’s a reason for it:

We all need time away from work, and with all the stresses that burden us, we deserve more.

How about a four day work week?

There has been a push for this in recent reporting. The CBC wrote this article detailing how the shortened week inevitably saves the company money, due to lowered energy costs of shutting down the plant on the extra day.

The state of Utah did a yearlong experiment with the four day work week. They have found amazing success, with saving costs for the company and gas for their employees, such as in the CBC article, but also found 82% of the workers preferred the new schedule.

While these two examples involve a longer work day, but shortened work week, the salaries stay the same [at 40 hours a week for standard full time, 4 days a week, 10 hour days].

This keeps you at work longer during the day, but you get the work week done much quicker, with a larger pay-off as well.

My belief is that this will lower stress, increase employee morale [which it has shown in examples], and will also spark the economy, with an extra day for people to go out and spend money on their free time.

Families could possibly improve, with a whole extra day for family time, and making it easy to plan trips without taking time off.

It’s shown to work, and its preferred by employees, while saving employers money, why hasn’t this been done sooner?

For more read this post at Bullion Bulls Canada.

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