[Wikimedia-l] O'Dwyer

[Jay Walsh]

>
>
> > It would be interesting to see the community develop its own high profile
> > media contacts so this view can be communicated to the world!
> >
> >
>
> If Jimmy can write this in The Guardian (a paper which really seems to like
> him a lot),
>
> ---o0o---
>
> Together, we won the battle against Sopa and Pipa. Together, we can win
> this one too.
>
> ---o0o---
>
> and it ends up copied in newspapers around the world,
>
>
> https://news.google.co.uk/news/story?q=%22Together,+we+won+the+battle+against+Sopa+and+Pipa.+Together,+we+can+win+this+one+too.%22&hl=en&prmd=imvns&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.r_qf
> .,cf.osb&biw=1066&bih=743&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ncl=dgWkAFmBLjQBsNMJyGJqPnbvsPpkM&sa=X&ei=xXTrT8rQHYqp8QO_hqXVBQ&ved=0CC0QqgIwAA
>
> attributed to the Wikipedia founder, then there really is no discernible
> difference between his view and Wikipedia's, or Google's.
>
>
Hi folks -  I'm a bit late to this thread, but I wanted to chime in. The
Communications Committee list/group brought up the issue of some wildly
inaccurate headlines on this story over the last 48hrs, and with their help
and some outreach we've tried to get some corrections.

The press is going to make a very logical, if occasionally wildly
inaccurate, series of judgements on how to frame this whole topic/issue up.
Headlines are commonly over-generalized to the point of being dead wrong -
"Wikipedia backs Richard O'Dwyer petition" etc.

The Wikimedia (chapter etc) folks who work with the press around the world
are regularly doing everything possible to avoid the overly general
summaries that come out in the media. We (and certainly WMF) are highly
sensitive to incorrect facts, and generally the media actually appreciate
it when we're able to reach out and get corrections. Wikimedians and
readers of the stories who offer up comments/responses on stories - below
the story - can help with this too. In some cases we have relationships
with senior editors at outlets and can get things fixed quickly. In other
cases timezones and publication timelines make this harder to resolve.

I know how quickly a bad headline can spiral into more headlines and
echoing of false information. We hold the news outlets who originate those
stories and the ones that continue to repeat them accountable, and we ask
them to get it right.

Just wanted to let you know that there's almost always an effort underway
to get corrections recorded. Jimmy is also very sensitive to these facts
and frequently when he sees an issue in a story he was interviewed for he
writes directly to the reporter for a fix.

jay

-- 
Jay Walsh
Head of Communications
WikimediaFoundation.org
blog.wikimedia.org
+1 (415) 839 6885 x 6609, @jansonw