Don't Panic
Depending on the reading this news either says that the Wikipedia is as good as the Encyclopedia Britannica or that they are both bad.This goes to help satisfy my own doubts about information found on the net.
I also realize that some of the crass errors I've found so far in the Wikipedia are simply "factual errors, omissions or misleading statements". And the good old Encyclopedia Britannica as almost as many of those as the Wikipedia according to the reviewers.
My guess here is that in a few years the errors will be quite similar, because researchers from both will use the other as one of their own sources.
Pretty much like the Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy and the Great Encyclopedia Galactica.
Have a nice weekend you all!
posted by DCveR at 7:14 AM
12 Comments:
And don't forget, yours truly sold a statewide subscription to the Britannica database to the Dept. of Ed. in Hawaii!
kris: With almost as many errors as free Wikipedia... shame on you!!! ;)
Well, maybe they'll see the error of their ways and change :-)
When I was studying journalism, I wrote a research paper about the outright lying that journalists succomb to under the pressure to outdo their competition. Vetting information journalistically goes like this: find it in print. If it is in print, you can legitimately use it in an article as fact. Newspapers are relied on as being The Authority for factual evidence for text books. Newspapers rely on text books. It is a vicious cycle where faulty information can get perpetuated in perpetuity.
Remember that Tony Blair used a student's paper to put forward his weapons of mass destruction excuse to invade Irak.
Bunnyjo has hit the nail on the head! Journalists know that 99% of their readers just take papers as gospel and won't bother to check the veracity of their "facts"...
Personally, I believe in angels just like ABBA...
Both are prone to "human error" ... but I love how mych more information wikipedia gives you. i'm always learning something new from it.
i just like saying 'wikipedia,' as if i've just discovered something.
'WIKIPEDIA!'
I can't help but feel sorry for kids that don't have a seet of encyclopdias that they can thumb through down in their basements after dinner. (Didn't every one do that, or was it only me?)
Last Girl On Earth
GG: Ideally that would happen. And in an ideal world there would be no holes in the ozone layer, nor wars, nor poor people... nope, sorry to say I really don't think so.
bunny jo: Trust nobody! Journalists sometimes really go to far, that's true.
I've even seen it happen to stories where I had all the details, it can be infuriating to see how the truth can be distorted only to get more readers/listeners/viewers.
cream: That is a sad excuse for Blair's urge to herd. Or to kiss butt to W if you prefer to put things that way. "Ooooppppssss, sorry I was mislead by a little kid...". I hope you don't really believe that fairy tale.
bees knees: I use it too, but I've found lots of wrong facts in there. Like any Encyclopedia it is good to give you a general concept but we must be careful if we want accurate data.
cadiz: LOL That is funny!!
last girl: You're were a geek!!! ;)
I too have a degree in Communications, and I know exactly what Bunnyjo is talking about.
Journalists are as good and bad as the rest of us. [Probably more scandalous, if the truth be told, hahaha].
Read Scoop by Evelyn Waugh.
Here you go, Dcver:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10478207/?GT1=7516
Gg: Thanks for adding another source.
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