Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/Communication/Global Power Shifts (Fall 2016)

This course examines the mutually constitutive relationship between rapidly transforming global communication systems and shifting structures of global political economic and cultural power. Competing claims of global power shifts – between the West and the Rest, between labor and capital, and between established institutions and networked “multitudes” – are analyzed in relation to enduring patterns and emerging dynamics in global communications.

The first part of the course addresses conceptual issues and provides historical, theoretical, as well as contemporary political economic and policy overviews. The second part focuses on the multifaceted intersections of an evolving geopolitics of information and ongoing processes of state transformation, market integration, and social struggles in and through a wide range of communication forms, processes, and practices in different world regions. The course demonstrates that competing claims of global power shifts are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Rather, they intersect in complex ways to define the new dynamics of power in the current era, as various social forces fight out their visions and stakes in a crises-laden global order both within and beyond the nation-state and other boundaries.

Week 1

 * Overview of the course
 * Introduction to how Wikipedia will be used in the course
 * Understanding Wikipedia as a community, we'll discuss its expectations and etiquette.

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Handout: Editing Wikipedia


 * Create an account and then complete the online training for students. During this training, you will make edits in a sandbox and learn the basic rules of Wikipedia.

Week 2

 * Review pages 4-7 of the Evaluating Wikipedia brochure. This will give you a good, brief overview of what to look for in other articles, and what other people will look for in your own.
 * Evaluate an existing Wikipedia article related to the class, and leave suggestions for improving it on the article's talk page.
 * A few questions to consider (don't feel limited to these):
 * Is each fact referenced with an appropriate, reliable reference?
 * Is everything in the article relevant to the article topic? Is there anything that distracted you?
 * Is the article neutral? Are there any claims, or frames, that appear heavily biased toward a particular position?
 * Where does the information come from? Are these neutral sources? If biased, is that bias noted?
 * Are there viewpoints that are overrepresented, or underrepresented?
 * Check a few citations. Do the links work? Is there any close paraphrasing or plagiarism in the article?
 * Is any information out of date? Is anything missing that could be added?

Resources: Evaluating Wikipedia, [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Using_talk_pages.pdf Using Talk Pages ]

Week 3

 * Add 1–2 sentences of new information, backed up with a citation to an appropriate source, to a Wikipedia article related to the class.

Week 4

 * Choose one article, identify ways in which you can improve and correct its language and grammar, and make the appropriate changes. (You do not need to alter the article's content.)

Week 5

 * The final and most important assignment for the Wikipedia project is to do ONE of the following:

a) Create a new article about a topic relevant to global communication. This could be a television series, a global communication scholar or theorist, a media institution or company, a government media strategy, a media campaign or initiative, a media event or scandal, a concept in global communication, etc. You must first ensure that there are no articles about the matter under other names across the English language Wikipedia. This new article will only survive if it is about a noteworthy topic and there is sufficient information for referencing. You must abide by the platform's rules on impartiality. For examples you can create new articles about such things as a British independent documentary film company Journeyman Pictures or ''b) Substantially Edit an Existing Article ''Identify an article of interest that is related to the subject of the course and in need of a substantial edit or significant content additions. By adding new text, new sections/headers/subheader, references, and changing the structure for the article, you are encouraged to make a major contribution to the article. This should improve the overall quality of the article.'' c) Translate an Existing Article'' Identify an existing article relevent to global communication in English or any other language (that you are well versed in) and translate to the other language. For example, translate the article about the television network Russia Today (RT) from English to Chinese, or an article about CCTV from English to Spanish, or an article about &quot;Transculturalism&quot; from English to Hindi.