The Last Best Place On The Internet

Richard Cooke

Vocab and Concepts

• Muted Criticism
• Wikipedia vs Britannica
• Deletionist
• Inclusionist
• The Good and The Bad of Wikipedia

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VOCAB

Muted Criticism

Delitionist

Inclusionist

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Vocab

• Muted Criticism
• Disproving or critiquing something but not saying the opinion vocally.
• Deletionism
• Opposing philosophy to inclusionism. Favors of removing or editing questionable material. Accurate or not.
• Inclusionism
• Opposing philosophy to deletionism. Favors keeping controversial material.

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CONCEPTS

Wikipedia vs Britannica

The Good and The Bad of Wikipedia

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CONCEPTS

Wikipedia

• It’s like a open-source project. Casual writers and editors who work on it on their spare time.
• Contributors don’t get paid
• Informal source of information, but frequently updated meaning is has current information

Britannica

• Accepts contributions only from recognized experts in their field
• Contributors get paid
• Use for more established information from recognized experts
• Has less audience than Wikipedia

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CONCEPTS

THE GOOD

When new information is announced, Wikipedia updates the information of the topic. It’s a useful source of updated information and summaries. It’s Available in 200 languages, which is more accessible than Britannica. It’s a big project that relies on Contributors desire to participate.

THE BAD

Contributors are not experts in the field. A topic can be edited by anyone. Which is informal information. This could result in bias ideals, inaccurate facts, or inappropriate statements.

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Wikipedia Is Not That Bad

The Takeaway and How Mass Media Can Use it.

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Takeaway

Use The Sources

At the bottom of the Wikipedia article there are sources of the topic. Use them. Wikipedia gives you free sources that you can use for your paper or presentation.

Frequently Updated

The information on a topic is frequently updated and edited. Which is great in keeping up with current information of a topic.

Good Summary

When looking up history of a topic, like a company, the summary of the history of the topic is useful. Use it to your advantage.

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HOW WE CAN USE IT

In Mass Media we need to get our information from an unbiased and reliable source. Wikipedia is often demonized by teachers and scholars for being unreliable. However, Wikipedia is useful because of the resources they provide, the summary, and the availability. The variety of languages and the having updated information is useful for Mass Media and should be used strategically.

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Source Pages

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2. Wikipedia is not a reliable source. (2020, July 13). Retrieved October 12, 2020, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_is_not_a_reliable_source

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3.. Wikipedia vs. Britannica: Which is best? (n.d.). Retrieved October 14, 2020, from http://recomparison.com/comparisons/100551/wikipedia-vs-britannica-which-is-best/

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4. Barnett, D. (2018, February 19). What is Wikipedia? The best way to find out is to consult it. Retrieved October 13, 2020, from https://www.independent.co.uk/news/long_reads/wikipedia-explained-what-it-trustworthy-how-work-wikimedia-2030-a8213446.html

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5. Mercer, D., Barney, J., Staff, O., & Hansen, D. (2019, January 24). Why You Cannot Use Wikipedia as an Academic Source. Retrieved October 15, 2020, from https://onlinelearningtips.com/2018/12/why-you-cannot-use-wikipedia-as-an-academic-source/

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• Cooke, R. (2020, February 17). Wikipedia Is the Last Best Place on the Internet. Retrieved October 13, 2020, from https://www.wired.com/story/wikipedia-online-encyclopedia-best-place-internet/

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6.Deletionism. (2005, October 20). Retrieved October 14, 2020, from https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Deletionism

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7. Inclusionism. (2005, October 21). Retrieved October 14, 2020, from https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Inclusionism

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