-----Original Message-----
From: Thomas Dalton [mailto:thomas.dalton@gmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, July 25, 2007 07:20 AM
To: 'English Wikipedia'
Subject: Re: [WikiEN-l] BBC
On 25/07/07, David Goodman <dgoodmanny(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Journals are professionals, with specialized
training and supervised
experience. They are taught how to work with things they do not
necessarily understand--in a sense, the very profession is the the
ability to go in and make sense out of something that is not
understood.
Some but not many WP editors have that skill also. A very few as
actual journalists, a few from related training (such as we
librarians), some from innate ability, but generally from experience
and attention.
That's the theory. Go and read a few science articles in mainstream
media and you'll soon realise that in practice things are very
different. Journalists think they can write about things they don't
understand and are generally wrong. Sound familiar?
It isn't so much that he's wrong, but how much can you learn about WIKIPEDIA by
interviewing Larry Sanders and the management of Britannica? David Gerard had to show him
the edit button... The piece reflects more on the reliability and integrity of the BBC
than on that of Wikipedia. It was amateurish. However a nice note at the end encouraging
people to edit, "It's your encyclopedia".
Fred