[WikiEN-l] BBC

[Fred Bauder]

>-----Original Message-----
>From: Thomas Dalton [mailto:thomas.dalton at 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 at 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