Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Wrongipedia

With the popularity of Wikipedia, it presents a challenge to not look to it for quick facts. Famous persons, places, and things often have Wikipedia pages devoted to them. If there is a Wikipedia page on something chances are it will be one of the top results when typed into any search engine, so why not take the quick information from it when it’s right there?
Wikipedia serves us better as a constantly updating newspaper not encyclopedia. In Levinson’s chapter of New New Media he talks about how Wikipedia and how it is so quick to publish information that sometimes the information turns out to be false. Wikipedia excels in its ability to create facts backed by popular belief. Anyone is able to edit a Wikipedia page so chances are that the person editing it probably has no background in the topic they are commenting on. Wikipedia will produce lots of correct facts, but if the topic of the Wikipedia page is controversial the page will most likely be over edited and incorrect.
A famous comedian by the name John Oliver talks about how is there is a Wikipedia page on him mentioning an incorrect middle name. Thinking that middle name he comes across on the page is funny, he decides to keep it, saying by popular demand his name can be changed. Facts are not opinionated they are facts. Facts are not subject to change and should written about by accredited professionals in their field only.

“Wikipedia is the best thing ever. Anyone in the world can write anything they want about any subject, so you know you are getting the best possible information.” –Michael Scott (Steve Carell) The Office.

2 comments:

  1. Personally, Wikipedia serves purely as a starting point. If I lack any real idea of what something is or need to get a general starting point I'll use wikipedia to guide me into a direction, however never use it's information. If the information is right, I'm sure I can find it else where.

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  2. Facts are indeed subject to change, and in fact facts are not necessarily true, only subject to texting to verify their validity. Science is constantly revising its facts, in much the same way that wikipedia does, interestingly enough.

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