[WikiEN-l] Is Wikipedia a News Portal (among other things)?

[Andrew Gray]

On 21/09/06, Peter Jacobi <peter_jacobi at gmx.net> wrote:
>
> "Stephen Bain" <stephen.bain at gmail.com> wrote:
> > The articles on last year's London bombings are also good examples.
> > [[2006 transatlantic aircraft plot]], within a few hours after the
> > story broke, was just about the best source available.
>
> If a Wikipedia article is "the best source available", it has
> become original research.

Not automatically. The problem is, you have a big and fast-breaking
story, you have everyone covering it. Everyone brings n points of
information to the table, but there are 2n points out there in total -
whilst there's a lot of overlap they don't all quote the same people,
they don't all have a reporter in this place or that. Because we're
stripmining the news sources rather than relying on our own primary
work, we can quote all 2n.

As long as we avoid drawing inferences or making synthesis by
juxtaposition, we're okay at keeping away from original research.

-- 
- Andrew Gray
  andrew.gray at dunelm.org.uk