[WikiEN-l] Fwd: Irish student's Wikipedia hoax dupes newspapers

[Andrew Turvey]

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: "Michael Peel" <email at 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
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> steve.virgin at dowjones.com
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