Submissions/Mainstream media as a reliable source in Wikipedia.

After careful consideration, the Programme Committee has decided not to accept the below submission at this time. Thank you to the author(s) for participating in the Wikimania 2014 programme submission, we hope to still see you at Wikimania this August.

Submission no. 1053

Title of the submission

Mainstream media as a reliable source in Wikipedia.

Type of submission (discussion, hot seat, panel, presentation, tutorial, workshop)

Presentation.

Author of the submission

Fernando Otero.

E-mail address

licotero-wpyahoo.com.ar

Username

Mapep.

Country of origin

Argentina.

Affiliation, if any (organisation, company etc.)

Personal homepage or blog

Abstract (at least 300 words to describe your proposal)

So far, Wikipedia has a lot of articles built partially or totally from mainstream media sources. It is generally accepted within the community that these sources are reliable. Indeed, they are for a wide array of topics and events. However, in certain cases mainstream media may not reflect what is expected from a truly reliable, independent source.

On the other hand, there are alternative sources of information, which are often tagged as being too biased, show an extreme point of view or even act like yellow journalism. And in many cases poorly written and structured. Alternative media also lack the popularity and the prestige that the traditional media have (some of them founded more than a century ago). In some cases, these alternative media work over a simple blogging platform like Wordpress or Blogger. As a direct result, alternative sources remain largely ignored as valid references for editing Wikipedia articles.

Mainstream media have a stronger experience in journalism and there are a lot of resources behind them. But they can be as much biased as the alternative media, if not more. Sophisticated methods are employed to produce content that seems unbiased to the average reader. Even the way that is chosen to include or exclude certain information, may represent a very subtle bias. The issue of journalism ethics also plays an important role in this context.

As web-based sources are used extensively in Wikipedia, we will analyze them in this presentation. We will discuss a few examples of how some recent events in Latin America are treated by local news organizations, how they are reflected internationally and how they finally appear on the encyclopedia, and we will focus especially on the Spanish and English Wikipedia.

Track

WikiCulture & Community

Length of session (if other than 30 minutes, specify how long)

40 minutes (including Q&A).

Will you attend Wikimania if your submission is not accepted?

Pending scholarship approval.

Slides or further information (optional)

Special requests

Interested attendees

If you are interested in attending this session, please sign with your username below. This will help reviewers to decide which sessions are of high interest. Sign with a hash and four tildes. (# ~~~~).

Add your username here.