Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2015-01-07/In the media

ISIL hostage quotes Wikipedia in propaganda video
The Al-Hayat Media Center, the propaganda arm of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, released its eighth propaganda video starring British photojournalist John Cantlie, who was abducted in Syria in 2012. (A transcript is available from the SITE Intelligence Group.) While the first six videos feature Cantlie in orange prison garb speaking behind a table, the two newest videos have him dressed in street clothes playing the role of a Western-style journalist exploring cities under ISIL control. In the latest video, Cantlie shows viewers parts of Mosul; he navigates the roadways in an automobile, visits a marketplace and a hospital, and even drives a police motorcycle. His narration counters reports in Western media about the difficulties of life in Mosul and the lack of goods and electricity. The video claims that Mosul is a safe and prosperous place, well-policed and low in crime, with the only ones suffering being children with "psychiatric problems" as the result of Western bombing raids. Cantlie quotes from the Wikipedia article on Mosul: "If you look in Wikipedia under the entry of Mosul, it says that on November 10, 2004, the policemen not killed in the fighting fled the city, leaving Mosul without any police force for about a month." By way of contrast, the video claims that ISIL's police force has a "firm presence" in Mosul despite having little to do due to the lack of crime.

Cantlie and American journalist James Foley were abducted outside an Internet cafe in Syria. Foley was repeatedly beaten and tortured in captivity before being beheaded on camera in a video uploaded to YouTube in August 2014. Last year ISIL also beheaded perhaps hundreds of other journalists, aid workers, enemy soldiers, and other humans.

AirAsia articles draw complaints regarding Flight 8501
The Independent complains (January 5) that Indonesia AirAsia Flight 8501 is not discussed more prominently in the articles for AirAsia and Indonesia AirAsia and that information about the crash and another incident is absent or being removed. Flight 8501 disappeared on December 28 and wreckage was found in the Karimata Strait two days later. On December 30, Indonesia AirAsia Flight 272 overshot the runway at Kalibo International Airport, forcing an evacuation of passengers via emergency slides. AirAsia owns 49 percent of Indonesia AirAsia and they share a logo, but a number of editors on the AirAsia article consider the two carriers to be entirely different airlines and have removed the information, noting that it does not comply in an unspecified way with WikiProject Airlines. While Flight 8501 has its own article, the crash is only mentioned in a single sentence near the bottom of the Indonesia AirAsia article. The Independent notes "The page does feature flattering information on the airline's safety record — including the fact that it is commended by the Indonesia Civil Aviation Authority for its safety — and its domination of the local market."

Article errors reveal US political approaches to Wikipedia editing
Al Jazeera America reports (January 6) that the Wikipedia article United States congressional delegations from Kentucky incorrectly identified Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senator Rand Paul as belonging to the Democratic Party instead of the Republican Party in picture captions. The almost certainly inadvertent errors were introduced when an editor added a gallery of photographs to the top of the article on December 21 and remained until they were corrected following the publication of the Al Jazeera story. The story quoted a pair of digital campaign consultants, one of whom, Karl Frisch, placed the blame squarely on "the digital teams of McConnell and Paul" for not catching and correcting the mistakes, even after the Al Jazeera author sent a mocking Tweet on December 30 to the Senators' official Twitter accounts. Frisch said "If you don’t know how to get something corrected on Wikipedia for your boss and you're a digital campaign consultant in 2015, you might as well quit." Frisch said that he has brought sources to the attention of Wikipedia editors to get changes made, while another strategist, Vincent Harris, said that he has "accounts that we manage that are active in the [Wikipedia] community that we make changes with" frequently.

Rhode Island Governor numbering debate


The Providence Journal discusses (January 2) the question of how the office of Governor of the US state of Rhode Island should be numbered. New governor Gina Raimondo, who was elected in November 2014 and assumed office on January 6, refers to herself the 75th Governor, following the example of the outgoing governor, Lincoln Chafee, who called himself the 74th Governor. The Journal asked Chafee's Communications Director, Faye Zuckerman, about the numbering and she referred the paper to the Wikipedia article List of Governors of Rhode Island.

The article lists 75 Governors beginning with Nicholas Cooke, who held office when Rhode Island declared independence in May 1776. Rhode Island was founded as the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations in 1636 and was one of the Thirteen Colonies of Great Britain which declared independence and went on to form the United States of America. The list does not include any governors prior to Cooke; they are listed separately at List of colonial governors of Rhode Island.

Tom Evans, State Librarian of Rhode Island, took issue with Wikipedia's numbering. Evans told the Journal that "They've counted two people who never adopted the title of governor." Henry Smith was President of the Rhode Island Senate in 1805 when he assumed the office following the deaths of Lieutenant Governor Paul Mumford and Governor Arthur Fenner. Isaac Wilbour was elected Lieutenant Governor in 1806, but because no gubernatorial candidate received a majority vote that year, Wilbour served as Governor instead. The list and the Wikipedia articles for Smith and Wilbour do not include inline citations related to this issue, but sources such as The Encyclopedia of Rhode Island refer to them as Acting Governors.

The list's numbering includes Governors who served more than one non-consecutive term as separate Governors, such as James Fenner, who is counted as the 7th, 11th, and 17th Governor. Evans objected to this as "confusing".

For his numbering, Evans used the two governing documents used by Rhode Island's government for most of its history. Eliminating Smith, Wilbour, and duplicate office holders, he counts 57 Governors starting from the 1842 Constitution of Rhode Island and 91 Governors starting from the 1663 Royal Charter.

In brief

 * Lists of lists of lists of lists: Gizmodo identified "9 of the Weirdest Wikipedia Pages We've Ever Seen" (January 9) : Euthanasia Coaster, Spite house, Vladimir Demikhov, David Hahn (the "Radioactive Boy Scout"), List of animals with fraudulent diplomas, Toilet paper orientation, List of lists of lists, Scaphism (execution by insects), Banana equivalent dose, and Emperor Norton.
 * Rhetorical questions: On January 8, the Chicago Bears announced that Ryan Pace was hired as their new general manager. Sports Illustrated reported that an hour later, a Wikipedia article was created that announced that fact and wondered "Seriously, how the hell did this guy not have a Wikipedia Page until now???".  Another editor removed the question with the next edit.
 * LGBT history editathon: The Georgia Straight reports (January 8) that there will be a "Queer History in Vancouver" editathon in the Bennett Library at Simon Fraser University on January 12. (G)
 * A year of Wikipedia: Quartz created a calendar displaying "The top-viewed Wikipedia page for every day of 2014" (January 7). Gizmodo labeled August 29-30, 2014 as "The Weekend Wikipedia Went "Brainfuck" Crazy" (January 8) due to the top-viewed article being about the programming language brainfuck. (G)
 * Defending free speech: In the wake of the Charlie Hebdo shooting, Yahoo! News recalls (January 7) Wikipedia's refusal to censor historical visual depictions of Muhammad in 2008 despite a petition with over 100,000 signatures demanding their removal. (See previous Signpost coverage.) (G)
 * Speedy editing: TechRepublic discusses (January 7) a December 29 Wikimedia Foundation blog post by software engineer Ori Livneh about how Wikipedia editing has been improved by faster page loads and significantly decreased time to save pages, due to the adoption of HipHop Virtual Machine.  Software engineer Brett Simmers also describes his work with the Foundation implementing HHVM on the HHVM blog (January 6).  (G)
 * Goooooal!: Soccer Gods lists "Seven things we learned from Wikipedia about the 2015 Asian Cup" (January 7). The 2015 AFC Asian Cup begins on January 9 in Australia. (G)
 * Framing the issue: The New York Times reports (January 6) that Sumanadasa Abeygunawardena, astrologer and advisor to Mahinda Rajapaksa, the outgoing President of Sri Lanka, displays "a giant framed copy" of his own Wikipedia article in his office. (G)
 * Conferences and editathons: The Times of India reports (January 5) that over a hundred college students participated in an editathon to improve Wikipedia articles related to the city of Nashik. The Press Trust of India reports (January 2) on a conference at Jadavpur University to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the Bengali Wikipedia and to encourage editing of Wikipedias devoted to the languages of the Indian subcontinent. (G)
 * Read along at home: Private Eye reports ("Media News", December 20, p. 15) that the narration for the BBC Radio 2 documentary Don't Fight It, Feel It: The Life of Sam Cooke was copied from the Wikipedia article Sam Cooke.  They wrote "For a true multimedia experience, [listeners] may also like to open the Wikipedia entry for Sam Cooke and read along with presenter Candi Staton, whose narration throughout the hour-long programme, which was produced by Danny O'Connor for Document Media, is very nearly word-for-word identical to the Wikipedia text." (S)