In recent times, we have seen the meteoric rise of social media, where chocolate bars have been resurrected, musicians have socially networked their way to chart success and unprecedented levels of hype have opened the door for new marketing methods. The power of social media in a lot of ways boils down to the power of opinion – if enough voices sing the same tune, it’s hard to ignore.

But should there be a limit to the power placed in the hands of the user? NewsCred, a news aggregator that ranks stories by the “credibility of their source”, has recently been launched and sparked a significant amount of online chatter. Users can rate each story, author and publication’s credibility, seeking to establish quality over popularity, unlike other news aggregators.

The site itself claims that NewsCred is all about “the Social Media Revolution” – harnessing the power of community to allow “the discerning news consumer to focus only on credible news content while filtering out the noise”. Interesting concept, yet the premise itself is problematic. Can something be deemed “credible” based on the recommendation of a group of faceless strangers? As Marissa Peacock discusses in her article, “Is it an author’s credentials, a publication’s political endorsement or a penchant for not lying, making up or otherwise hiding the ‘truth’ no matter how messy or uncomfortable it makes us?”

Rory Cellan-Jones also discusses NewsCred in his blog for the BBC Website, taking the debate to an interesting level, by stating his concern that “sites like NewsCred will become playgrounds for lobby groups and obsessives” and asks, “Isn’t it likely that those with passionate views will rush to judge the credibility of news stories according to their own prejudices, while the rest of the internet population just won’t bother?”

My own personal concern is that there is also a level of laziness that results from relying on sites such as NewsCred – since when did it become so difficult to make up your own mind? But perhaps I am missing the point. Either way, if there is one thing that Snakes on a Plane  has taught us (a truly dreadful film – avoid it), it’s that you can’t always trust internet popularity as an endorsement.