----- Forwarded Message -----
From: "Michael Peel" <email(a)mikepeel.net>
Sent: Sunday, 10 May, 2009 17:30:42 GMT +00:00 GMT Britain, Ireland, Portugal
Subject: Re: FYI
Added at 14.13 on 30 March by an anon:
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?
title=Maurice_Jarre&diff=next&oldid=280648942
Removed 24 hours later, at 15.07 on 31 March, as it was unsourced:
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?
title=Maurice_Jarre&diff=next&oldid=280865419
Journalists should really check their sources... It's unfortunate
that they believe unreferenced things on Wikipedia.
Mike
On 7 May 2009, at 17:47, Virgin, Steve wrote:
Irish student's Wikipedia hoax dupes newspapers
13 hours ago
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/
ALeqM5gQV2LU_QhL5w_BcPY5B6pvuUUMGg
DUBLIN (AFP) — An Irish student's fake quote on the Wikipedia
online encyclopaedia has been used in newspaper obituaries around
the world, the Irish Times reported.
The quote was attributed to French composer Maurice Jarre who died
in March.
Shane Fitzgerald, 22, a final-year student studying sociology and
economics at University College Dublin, told the newspaper he
placed the quote on the website as an experiment when doing
research on globalisation.
He quoted Oscar-winning composer Jarre as saying, "One could say my
life itself has been one long soundtrack. Music was my life, music
brought me to life, and music is how I will be remembered long
after I leave this life.
"When I die there will be a final waltz playing in my head, that
only I can hear."
The quote was posted on Wikipedia shortly after Jarre's death and
later appeared in obituaries in major British, Indian and
Australian newspapers.
Fitzgerald told the newspaper he picked Wikipedia because it was
something a lot of journalists look at and it can be edited by anyone.
While he was wary about the ethical implications of using someone's
death as a social experiment, he had carefully generated the quote
so as not to distort or taint Jarre's life, he said.
Fitzgerald said he was shocked by the result of his experiment.
"I didn't expect it to go that far. I expected it to be in blogs
and sites, but on mainstream quality papers? I was very surprised
about," he said.
He said the hoax remained undiscovered for weeks until he e-mailed
the newspapers that had been deceived to tell them that they had
published an inaccurate quote.
The Irish Times said that despite some newspapers removing the
quote from their websites or carrying a correction and the fact
that it had been dropped by Wikipedia, it remained intact on dozens
of blogs, websites and newspapers.
Steve Virgin
Media Consultant
Dow Jones Insight
Commodity Quay, East Smithfield, London E1W 1AZ.
Tel: +44 (0) 203 217 5281/+44 (0) 117 965 4041
Mob: +44 (0)7795 031 935/07766 227 352
Fax: +44 (0) 203 217 5232
steve.virgin(a)dowjones.com
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