Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2006-10-09/In the news

AfD covered in The New York Times on Sunday
"Somewhere ... between the discovery that you are listed in the phone book and, say, being knighted, sits the Wikipedia entry," begins Noam Cohen. He then describes the need for Wikipedia to delete articles. Cohen claims that about 2,000 of the 4,000 new articles are deleted each day by administrators. Cohen then features highlights from the deletion and the final decision for the following: List of songs featuring cowbells (AfD); Pooky the Teddy Bear (AfD); Chuck Greene (AfD); The Constantian Society (AfD); and Diane Farrell (AfD, AfD 2nd nom).

NEA Today
NEA Today, the monthly magazine of the National Education Association, features Wikipedia in its October issue. Cindy Long gives an overview of Wikipedia and suggests that it is "a powerful [teaching] tool for educators trying to teach information literacy in the digital age." The problem of vandalism is explained and those doing recent changes patrol are compared to "hall monitors."

Reputation of Wikipedia
The Evansville Courier Press, in Internet & Wikipedia showcase nonsense, claims "It's dangerous [to live] in the misinformation age. So much of what you hear and read is incorrect, stupid and crazy." The article then quotes articles such as spontaneous human combustion to support that thesis.

The Michigan Daily, a newspaper serving the University of Michigan, discusses the Wikipedia articles on the Michigan gubernatorial candidates, Jennifer Granholm and Dick DeVos, concluding that while they "contain few overt inaccuracies, the articles may give readers a skewed impression."

Arizona State University's online campus newspaper, the Web Devil followed up last week's article with an editorial describing the editing process at Wikipedia as a "seething pit of contention that is Internet culture... [where] face clawing and name calling [have] been continuously going on since Wikipedia's initial success." Wikipedia is also contrasted with Citizendium.

NPR affiliate KUOW-FM in Seattle, on its October 11, 2006 "Weekday" show, featuring writer and performer John Hodgman (author of the book "The Areas of my Expertise"). Hodgman described Wikipedia as not a place to check facts, but to determine what the controversies were for any given subject. He called it "the place where a million people go to grind their tiny axes.”

Local newspaper reviews Wikipedia
The Parksville Qualicum News article, News travels fast on wiki site reports on Wikipedia's "unparalleled self-correcting qualities ... and its unique ability to be absolutely up to date, [making] a strong argument for its use as the go to reference on a wide range of subjects." Wikipedian User:KenWalker is interviewed.

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