Thankfully we have Jay to create contacts at said media outlets.

----- Original Message ---- From: Michael Bimmler mbimmler@gmail.com To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Sent: Saturday, April 26, 2008 9:51:53 AM Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] WMF and the press

On Sat, Apr 26, 2008 at 6:37 PM, Anthony wikimail@inbox.org wrote:

I might buy that (the first part is pretty much incontrovertibly true), though I'd find it at odds with the whole concept of Wikimedia projects (that Wikimedians, on average, can find reliable sources, sort the wheat from the chaff, and get to the truth).

Well... the average Wikimedian does indeed (learn to) use reliable sources. However, a) there are many non-Wikimedians who might not be particularly used to this idea [discussion of various sources is often only done in 'grammar schools' or universities, so quite a few people might miss this interesting branch of science...]

b) much more importantly, often the newspaper they read is considered a reliable source by them.

To give you an example, there are two highly reputable newspapers in German-speaking Switzerland, one of them being traditionally more left-wing, the other more right-wing. I usually trust both of them when it comes down to individual facts (although I sometimes differ with their conclusions/comments). However, if my view of Wikipedia was only shaped by these newspapers, it would be quite distorted indeed as they have several times reported facts that are...just wrong. Now, I know quite a few bright and intelligent people who know how to "sort the wheat from the chaff" and who wouldn't rely on the average tabloid for any information. Though, if they read a sentence like "Wikipedia will introduce stable versions, which means that from now on, a small group of staff editors controls which of the edits will actually go live on the site" in their trusted newspaper, they believe it. They won't spend half an hour reading Wikipedia policy proposals on "Stable versions" unless they have to write a paper about it. So, if I see them on the next morning, the first thing I hear is "Ah, you Wikipedians finally gave up on this principle of 'everyone can edit', eh?"

Michael