Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/The World Academy of Arts, Literature, and Media


 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review).  No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was   keep. Stifle (talk) 08:52, 29 September 2008 (UTC)

The World Academy of Arts, Literature, and Media

 * ( [ delete] ) – (View AfD) (View log)

Neither the organisation or its owner/founder has notability - search also on "World Academy of Arts, Literature and Median' as the webmaster has spelling problems (with the name of the organisation and at least one award winner). Doug Weller (talk) 21:15, 24 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Organizations-related deletion discussions.   --  Fabrictramp  |  talk to me  00:02, 25 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Iran-related deletion discussions. --CreazySuit (talk) 03:35, 25 September 2008 (UTC)


 * Delete. Seems to be utterly unnotable - a minimal number of Google hits and a grand total of one Google News article, which appears to be a press release . -- ChrisO (talk) 00:36, 25 September 2008 (UTC)
 * However, Google hits are not a notability criterion (see Arguments to avoid in deletion discussions). Sound familiar? Khoikhoi 05:57, 25 September 2008 (UTC)


 * Khoi, I agree. But would you please also agree that you can't use Nationmaster (which itself uses Wikipedia as a major source), other Wikipedia articles, or information from the website itself as evidence of notability?  And I'm sure that those who receive it publicise it, that's natural. But does that make it notable? What bothered me about the article was the absence of independent third party sources. There may be some notability to be found, but if it were 'very notable' I think that would have been obvious. Doug Weller (talk) 06:36, 25 September 2008 (UTC)


 * Keep. Numerous notable people have put this award in their biography, for example: Azar Nafisi(author of Reading Lolita in Tehran)    & Hassan Sattar who received an award and performed  at the 2nd annual awards. There are several mentions of the award at Nationmaster under Music of Iran  subsection. The group Nox touts this award on its wiki page. The award is cited by the children's author and illustrator Howard Lee  at the website Beyond Persia. This NPR article  mentions that the Israeli group Idan Raichel Project received Persian Golden Lioness Award for excellence. Sounds quite notable to me. Tundrabuggy (talk) 04:30, 25 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Keep. This award's notability is verified by the fact that numerous broadcasters, musicians, best-selling authors, and Hollywood actors have attended the award's ceremony in Budapest from around the world, notably celebrities such as Omid Djalili, Vanessa Redgrave, Idan Raichel Éva Marton,  Shohreh Aghdashloo, Nazanin Boniadi,  Maurice Béjart and Azar Nafisi. Khoikhoi 05:33, 25 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Notability derives from coverage by third-party published sources. Where are these third-party published sources? -- ChrisO (talk) 14:25, 25 September 2008 (UTC)


 * Keep. per above. Beside all the celebrities that have been mentioned, the award ceremony was also attended by Hungarian dignitaries, including the mayor of Budapest. Videos and photos of the Award ceremony are available on www.waalm.com. The award has also covered by various international media outlets including BBC, Voice of America, Jewish News, The Budapest Times, SBS Radio, Kecskemeti TV, Jaam-e-Jam etc., and endorsed by numerous celebrities. This is without a doubt a very notable award. --CreazySuit (talk) 05:51, 25 September 2008 (UTC)
 * A question for the "keep" votes: People that got this award list it on their website and such. Similarly, many people that have received awards from the American Biographical Institute list them on their CV and such (including even some government leaders). Nevertheless, there seems to exist a consensus that ABI awards are not notable. I therefore gingerly suggest that whether awardees find an award notable is perhaps not completely relevant. The persons voting keep above have diligently provided several links to people showing off their awards. Given the fact that all these people do this and that celebreties like Venessa Redgrave attended award ceremonies, it should be easy to provide a few reliable and independent sources and we can the close this AfD as a ressounding "Keep". (WAALM's own site might serve as a start to give us an indication where to search, although it is of course not an independent source here) --Crusio (talk) 08:46, 25 September 2008 (UTC)


 * Comment Our article Iranian.com points out that WAALM is an extension of the International Further Studies Institute which Dorbayani also runs/owns  and is  unaccredited in the US  - see it's own statement here  and linked to the Pinnacle Business School offering MBAs which is, like the IFSI, licensed to teach but doesn't have any real accreditation. So you get Dorbayani giving a Mayor a medal of excellence from the IFSI . Good PR. Doug Weller (talk) 09:39, 25 September 2008 (UTC)
 * And that is all irrelevant to the award's notability, thank you very much. Somebody asked for independent coverage and sources about the award, here are a dozens of them.     --CreazySuit (talk) 10:17, 25 September 2008 (UTC)


 * Question I don't have time to look at all of them, but this one although it mentions Dorbabyani and the International Foreign Studies Institute, is about awards given by the "Persian Academy Awards International", not WAALM.  is a German blog mentioning Madonna, no awards, WAALM, etc, why is it relevant?  And this  also seems to be about a 'Persian Academy'. Doug Weller (talk) 13:00, 25 September 2008 (UTC)


 * Keeep - as per User:Khoikhoi. Tājik (talk) 11:32, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

keep, per Khoikhoi--Babakexorramdin (talk) 04:42, 26 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Keep. Both the BBC and the VOA have devoted coverage to them. They are notable.--Zereshk (talk) 14:49, 25 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Weak keep and rename. CreazySuit has presented "dozens" of sources. Almost all of those are not independent (they are from the WAALM website, others are from blogs), but two are from the BBC and Voice of America. Although those are in Farsi (?), which I don't read, it seems to me that those articles are, indeed, about the award. These sources establish in my eyes some notability for the award, even though they are rather short. I recommend that the article be renamed after the award and rewritten accordingly, which seems notable, but the WAALM seems not to be notable. --Crusio (talk) 15:48, 25 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Comment Now that's an interesting idea. Particularly what seems to be a complex network of inter-related organisations (which I admit to having some concern about). Let's see what others say. Doug Weller (talk) 17:14, 25 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Comment The images of newspaper clips hosted on WAALM website are simply for verification, the print martial are independent sources on their own. --CreazySuit (talk) 08:25, 26 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Comment Possibly, but they don't all mention WAALM, right? What do you think about renaming the article after the award? Doug Weller (talk) 09:15, 26 September 2008 (UTC)


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.