Airbrushing history

As the world’s information increasingly moves online so it would seem is our history and when information is electronically stored there is always a chance that it might be ‘modified’. This weeks MoneyWeek which recalled ex-FT editor Andrew Gowers prognosis that the future press won’t involve ink and dead trees. Of course one enduring feature of print is how it can record those spectacularly wrong predictions.

A recently written a paper called ‘Rewriting History’ alleges some selected revisions to a database recording corporate forecasts and earnings. They say that analyst names have been removed from the worst performing recommendations.

The implications for media tracking and analysis could be manifold, which works on the principle of certain publication and retrieval. The media mix is becoming so massive and diverse and the extra factor of alteration will only make it a greater challenge.