JUNE 26, 2009

Wikipedia V. Traditional News Sources

When I was in high school and college, my teachers and professors tried to teach us the importance of research sources, especially in relation to information found online.  They taught us what to look for when evaluating a website’s legitimacy, and how to credit it as a source.  Back then, content without any sort of official association or credential received no consideration.

Today is a different story:  The New York Times reported that Wikipedia is now being listed on Google News alongside traditionally reputable news sources like The Washington Post and CNN.  A spokesperson for Wikipedia said, “Google is recognizing that Wikipedia is becoming a source for very up-to-date information.”

Wikipedia has an entire section of the site devoted to breaking news. Its mission statement states:

Wikinews’ use extends beyond original reports, by providing free, neutral, integrated summaries of the news from elsewhere. It will already be useful even if the subject range covered will be full of gaps—because in these subject areas, we will already benefit from the collaborative wiki model. It will grow to become more useful every day.

Due to the efforts of an enormous community of contributors, Wikipedia is very useful throughout the development of breaking news stories. As more details come out about a news event, Wikipedia contributors update the site with new information and attempt to provide the most accurate, neutral representation of all reports from all sources. This can provide much needed context when the stream of reports becomes too overwhelming. A recent example of Wikipedia’s usefulness as a news source came in the wake of Michael Jackson’s death - reportedly, almost 500 edits were made to Michael Jackson’s Wikipedia page in the space of 24 hours as contributors rushed to provide the most accurate, up-to-date information.

At TMG, we follow trends like those related to user generated content and the power of consumers and Deep Listening.  With that in mind, it’s interesting to see that user-generated content and immediacy are redefining news sources, and that a crowdsourced site can provide some order and context when there is a deluge of information.