One of the hot topics in Higher Education at the moment is plagiarism, with Universities struggling to develop appropriate educational and disciplinary responses to a rapidly increasing number of cases. The reasons for this increase are many: from changes in research styles resulting from increased internet use; to less awareness of British approaches to plagiarism; to increased financial and other pressures on students. It is also a tricky area to deal with given that many other cultures have a very different approach to western academia when it comes to copying and referencing.
Last week Wired carried a story about an study into the dissemination of information through blogs. In it, they argue that many blogs thrive by copying content from one another and suggest that the most-read blogs are often not the ones with the most original content. Setting aside the potential irony of quite how many blogs picked up the story, I was intrigued by the possible connection with the plagiarism issues mentioned above.
Certainly many bloggers do try our best to reference sources when quoting, but as we all struggle to learn to cope with ever increasing volumes of data, is it possible that blogging is contributing to a general societal shift in the way people source and reference material?