Updates on your cell phone. Bloggers in the Supreme Court. The lucky newspapers up for sale; the unlucky ones down for the count.  Now that everyone with eyes and ears seems to have access to a computer and the mainstream media outlets find themselves in honest competition with upstart bloggers, podcasters and Wikipedians, the already fast-paced world of the media is in a state of constant kinesis.

The media never fails to trumpet its responsibility to the people, but with more of the traditional filters gone, we the consumers must consider the evaluation of information a crucial endeavor. 

We have always known that a political article from the New York Times will read differently than one from the Wall Street Journal, and that FOX News will give all of one side of the story.  We must now learn that YouTube’s videos are not evenly representative of the situation on the ground, that the blogger who knows it first may not know it best, and that any article -- be it in a newspaper or on Wikipedia -- is only as credible as its sources.

The Internet has toppled the barriers surrounding the Fourth Estate, drafting every citizen into active journalistic duty as the editor of his or her own avalanche of information, some of it credible, some of it not.

Playwright Tom Stoppard wrote: “Junk journalism is the evidence of a society that has got at least one thing right, that there should be nobody with the power to dictate where responsible journalism begins.”  When he wrote those lines in his play “Night and Day,’’ he meant tabloid newspapers; however, the opinion holds when considering the unregulated tangle of information on the Internet blogosphere.

The availability of questionable content, be it on the tabloid rack at the supermarket or three clicks away from this site, is a prime indicator of the health of the free press.  However, with the great power of access comes the great responsibility of discrimination.  Consumers of media make no fewer choices than any other consumers; as the media grows and changes, we must become smarter and more shrewd shoppers when it comes to news.

As we become adults, go off to college and begin to supplement teen-oriented news with mainstream sources, we bear greater responsibility for our own education.  Whether we are choosing our classes or our newspaper, our homepage or our next home, our choices will frame the world we see.

In the world of news, one should travel far and travel smart.  Sample YouTube, Blogger and Wikinews, but do so with the proverbial grain of salt.  Enjoy raw sources, but remember, when you long for the credible, ache for the edited and hunger for a fresh perspective on the world at large, sources such as Read This! are only two clicks away. 

Only one person has the power to dictate where responsible journalism begins: you.

Rachel Wolf is a senior at Palo Alto High.