User:GymnastJ

Brooke Johnson

Professor Creel

ENGL 1111

8 June 2014

The Great Wikipedia Debate

No single site has impacted information in the same way Wikipedia has. Wikipedia is easily one of the most popular was to retrieve information today. A search for practically any subject in a search engine would predictably list Wikipedia as one of the results. With the click of a button, research has been revolutionized. Wikipedia is the world's largest web-based free-content encyclopedia project, with more than 100,000 regularly active contributors working on more than 20,000,000 papers in more than 283 languages, attracting more than 400,000,000 unique visitors monthly as of January 2012 (Shen, Cheung, and Lee). Collaborative environments like Wikipedia can be freely edited by anyone, causing a stir of controversy and conflict over the site’s accuracy. Because of Wikipedia is a collaborative site, control, the information is less precise than that of a professional peer-reviewed Web site.

It seems like a lifetime ago that I when I would consult my Encyclopedia for class projects or papers. Encyclopedias were a big deal in my family. Every Christmas my paternal Grandparents would purchase a set of Encyclopedias I would call “my library.” I couldn’t wait to get the updated version every Christmas, complete with a ribbon around each volume. As an elementary school student, I couldn’t imagine the wealth of information that would replace these beloved books. When I grew into my college years, I could access thousands of encyclopedias simple by going to a Wikipedia website address. I recall last summer when I heard on the early morning news that actor Cory Monteith’s died. I wasn’t certain who Cory Monteith was so I entered his name in a Google search. Wikipedia was the first website that popped up in my search and the site listed the current day as the day he died. Monteith had been dead for hours and Wikipedia already had updated his profile. During my freshman year in college, I was introduced to peer-reviewed articles and academic journals. I learned that the quantity of information wasn’t nearly as important as the quality of information. Angelo State University (“Library Guides”) defines peer-reviewed as “journals containing articles written by academics and/or professionals, articles are written by experts and are reviewed by several other experts in the field before the article is published in the journal in order to insure the article's quality.” In most cases the reviewers do not know who the author of the article is, so that the article succeeds or fails on its own merit, not the reputation of the expert.

Wikipedia has come under fire from all sides with claims that much of its content is unreliable and prone to Internet hooligans who deliberately print false information on the site. On July 24, 2006, a salaried Wikipedia editor claimed to be a tenured professor at a private University. The Wikipedian turned out to be a 24 year-old college drop out from Kentucky named Ryan Jordan. According to Brodkin, the Wikipedian administrator “was found to have made false claims about his academic qualifications and professional experiences on his Wikipedia user page.” Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales initially supported Essjay's use of a false identity but later withdrew his support and asked for Essjay's resignation. Wales stated that he withdrew his support when he learned "that Essjay used his false credentials in content disputes" on Wikipedia (Cohen). "When Wikipedia is in the news, it's always because someone found this inaccuracy, or somebody's suing Wikipedia … It's always about how Wikipedia screwed up. So of course what they're going to be worried about is not how to make Wikipedia grow and have more content, it's about how we keep Wikipedia out of trouble and how we stop people from messing it up" (Johnson).

Using peer-reviewed articles and journals is an integral part of academics, particularly for college students. Peer-reviewed articles and journals allow for the reader to make informed judgments about the content of what they are reading. Peer-reviewed articles also offer a variety of knowledgeable and educated opinions and leave little room for an author’s personal bias to impact their research. The peer-reviewed process has multiple “checks and balances” to ensure the merit of the research. The authors, and the reviewers themselves, are almost always notable experts in their field. The quality of the information is significantly more accurate than Wikipedia. The process of peer-review is understood by a majority of researchers and scholars. The process ensures no false credential or falsified work. This is a far cry from Wikipedia’s anonymous editing process. College students, and the general public, should rely on the accuracy of peer-reviewed information instead of a collaborative website.

'Works Cited Brodkin, Jon. "The 10 Biggest Hoaxes in Wikipedia's First 10 Years." PC World New Zealand. N.p., 15 Jan. 2011. Web. 08 June 2014. .

Shen, Xiao-Liang, Christy M. K. Cheung, and Matthew K. O. Lee. "What Leads Students To Adopt Information From Wikipedia? An Empirical Investigation Into The Role Of Trust And Information Usefulness." British Journal Of Educational Technology 44.3 (2013): 502-517. Academic Search Premier. Web. 8 June 2014.

"Library Guides." How to Recognize Peer-reviewed Journals. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 June 2014. .

Questions for Peer Review: 1) Are the analytical paragraphs persuasive enough?

2) Is the message clear and the thesis statement obvious?

3) Does the paper have a "flow" to it and represent college-level writing?