On 7/8/06, Andrew Lih andrew.lih@gmail.com wrote:
On 7/9/06, Anthony wikilegal@inbox.org wrote:
Why is it that Wikipedians seem to have so much trouble accepting legitimate criticism?
Legitimate criticism should be welcomed, but when the headline says "Wikipedia" as a whole has "confusion" and was "reeling," then that's sensational.
Sensationalism is what US newspapers (generally) do. Of course, I think the headline that "Ken Lay's death prompts confusion on Wikipedia" is perfectly accurate. The headline doesn't even say that Wikipedia is confused - it says that there was confusion "on Wikipedia".
Academics and reporters who know that I've published about Wikipedia ask me - "So, how is that crisis on Wikipedia on Ken Lay?" One even requested to do a TV interview about it.
I've written a response on my blog to these folks, explaining the lifescycle of a Wikipedia article: http://www.andrewlih.com/blog/2006/07/05/wikipedias-ken-lay-problem/
Criticising the news media has its place. But I think there's a lot more to learn from this than that the news media engages in sensationalism.
Wikipedia should be getting its facts *more* correct than the news outlets, not less. I remember a similar mess after the death of [[Jean Charles de Menezes]]. Wikipedia articles repeated unsubstantiated rumor as though it was fact.
Since Wikipedia depends on the first-hand reporting from news outlets, it can only be as good as the ability of human editors to converge on the best version of "the truth" using those sources.
And if those sources aren't rock solid, they should be cited and attributed. Even to this day I wouldn't feel comfortable saying that "Kenneth Lay died from coronary artery disease" without attributing that fact to the coroner.
What can be done about this? Well, as was pointed out by mboverload, one possible thing is to "stop anons from editing". But there are an infinite number of other, less harsh tweaks, both technical and policy based.
This assumes, of course, that there's a problem in the first place, other than the fact that newspapers sensationalize.
Anthony