Media throughout the world have written congratulatory articles about Wikipedia on the encyclopedia's 20th birthday. The Wikimedia Foundation has done a good job letting the press know that we're big, popular, appear in about 300 languages, and are frequently edited, mostly by volunteers. See, for example this list. But what else is new? A couple of dozen newspapers just focus on these numbers and add some seemingly random or local-interest facts. The more interesting stories take different angles, often telling as much about the author and their relationship with the encyclopedia, as about Wikipedia itself. Fair enough! No journalist can be expected to summarize Wikipedia in a single article.
United States Capitol protests/storming/riots/insurrection
- The Washington Post focuses on Wikipedia's ability to sort out misinformation and disinformation. The Post uses the article 2021 storming of the United States Capitol as an example of how editors cooperate and contend to create articles on news events as they happen, quoting Molly White, Katherine Maher, and Anne Clin on several examples throughout the article. Other topics covered include the pandemic, the gender gap, hoaxes and vandalism and the reliability of Wikipedia.
- Time magazine also uses the "Storming the Capitol" article as a starting point, and then goes on to describe the generally self-healing nature of knowledge management in the Wikipedia community. More directly, they write "why does Wikipedia seem to have a general immunity to bullshit?" Anybody who disagrees might wish to take Time to ANI.
- The Guardian: "Wikipedia at 20: last gasp of an internet vision, or a beacon to a better future?" chronicles the building of the 2021 storming of the United States capitol article from a one-editor effort by Another Believer to an in-depth community collaboration, as an indication of Wikipedia's growth since its early days to what it is today, potentially a "shining beacon lighting the way to a better future".
- Fast Company examines the insurrection story, again mentioning Another Believer, in "As a mob attacked the Capitol, Wikipedia struggled to find the right words".
- Connecticut Public Radio interviews administrator and former ArbCom member Molly White in "Wikipedia at 20: The Promises and Pitfalls of the 'Free Encyclopedia'". White, who was the second editor at the Capitol storming article (see further details in the Special report), describes its development and wider issues of Wikipedia's relationship with its editors and readers including how to handle situations where there is no clear "accepted truth" and the "weaponization" of neutrality.
With a twist
- The Economist solves the problem of how to fit everything into one article by publishing three separate pieces.
- Wikipedia is 20, and its reputation has never been higher. In its youth Wikipedia was the butt of many jokes, and even now "The Economist's fact-checkers frown on relying on it". But they consider us "the standard reference work for anyone with an internet connection, and quote WMF staffer Toby Negrin saying we are the "guardian of truth".
- A rich-world Wikipeak - Wikipedia's future lies in poorer countries: "From 2010 to 2018 the number of active editors working in languages spoken in the richer half of countries in the world fell by 5%, but the corresponding figure for those spoken in the poorer half more than doubled."
- In a 27 minute podcast The Economist asks Jimmy Wales "Is social media still a force for good?" One answer "perhaps the most surprising thing is how little Wikipedia has changed." For more on podcasts, as well as videos, on our birthday, see The Signpost article here.
- The BBC reduces the history of Wikipedia, with some help from long-time admin David Gerard, to five articles: George W. Bush, COVID-19 pandemic, Gladys West, List of WWE personnel, and Inherently funny word. The Signpost might replace Inherently funny word with Exploding whale or Standard poodle, but that's just quibbling.
- Wikipedia is a monument of human cooperation and collaboration, according to Vice Motherboard's piece on the billionth edit – which also carries a pleasingly wonky analysis about the merit of the use of the term "billionth" from their source, Wikipedia editor The Cunctator.
- Wikpedia at 20: Did you know Will Ferrell was once not killed in a paragliding incident? in the Irish Times gives the most well-rounded and best-written overview of all these articles. "Its prose is flat, design rudimentary, but Wikipedia remains a triumph of human ingenuity."
- Deutsche Welle gets very serious. Topics include wikiwashing by politicians, hoaxes involving celebrities, and nationalistic spins on the same article topics in different language editions of Wikipedia, using as an example Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, which is also called Анексія, anéksija or "Annexation" in Ukrainian, but Присоединение, prisojedinénije which can also mean accession (see wikt:присоединение) in the corresponding Russian Wikipedia article. It goes on to give the reader ways to verify an article is credible including checking its spelling and grammar, whether it has a neutral tone, and whether its references check out.
- That's why Wikipedia is still the boys' arena (paywall, in Swedish) by Professor Nina Wormbs in Dagens Nyheter. She points out Wikipedia's success as a long-term non-commercial internet actor while embodying the original on-line values. Focus has been properly placed by Wikipedians on both the quantity of articles and accuracy. In reviewing the gender-gap, she concludes that a gender balance of biographical articles might indeed not be possible. An important point is that broader knowledge about Wikipedia and its limits would greatly enhance the usefulness of the encyclopedia. Wormbs invokes Yochai Benkler in saying that Wikipedia is a sign of successful collaboration outside of the market system. Benkler also suggests that we should learn from projects like Wikipedia when it comes to other non-market collaborations, e.g. the climate crises. Another Swedish article, "A social medium that brings out the best in us" (paywall) was published in Svenska Dagbladet.
- The most bizarre birthday article is from NDTV, "So Glad You Exist": Elon Musk's Birthday Wish For Wikipedia, focusing on a short tweet from the world's richest man. The Signpost returns Musk's compliment; we're glad that he exists as well, but we're not so sure about NDTV.
- WIRED thinks Wikipedia Is Basically a Massive RPG where "We will see the rise of a new paladin class—those who are not code sorcerers, and who are not writer warriors, but someone in-between—using powerful, pre-prepared spells to fight vandals and abusers, as well as to improve content overall" according to author's source Dariusz Jemielniak.
- Speaking of wonky, Mashable brings us "20-plus facts about the free encyclopedia that you never knew you never knew" to celebrate Wikipedia's 20th anniversary (though in truth this Signpost editor did know about half of them, and the real-life name of Giraffedata besides).
Where we go from here?
- Wikipedia is twenty. It’s time to start covering it better Stephen Harrison and Omer Benjakob, in the Columbia Journalism Review address their fellow journalists using many of the same examples as they use to address academics in their chapter in Wikipedia @ 20 and to address Wikipedia editors in this issue's In focus. They conclude that "journalism should help readers better understand Wikipedia’s policies and inner workings." Since "Wikipedia’s diverse and often divergent community is the secret to its success," journalists should report on the community with more nuance than writing as if all editors have a single point of view or engage in a constant free-for-all.
- Wikipedia's Biggest Challenge Awaits in 2021 in Wired by the dean of Wiki-journalists Noam Cohen, starts with a retelling of Wikipedia's many achievements but then moves to the Universal code of conduct and why it is sorely needed. The changes proposed by the WMF and many others to diversify the editing community raise existential questions for the online encyclopedia. He uses the examples of the articles Mythology of Benjamin Banneker and Der Giftpilz, a Nazi children's book. The mythology article is not really about Banneker, an accomplished African-American, but a strong critique of stories made up about him. Why don't we have similar articles about the mythology of George Washington or Albert Einstein? The Nazi children's book article included a link to the book's contents and might promote the book in other ways. Both articles will make editing Wikipedia a harrowing experience for some editors. "This is the gnawing challenge for Wikipedia. After a period of wild, unrestrained growth, it needs some civilizing laws. The equivalent of a fair housing act and safety inspections to ensure it won’t exclude certain groups from its pages and allow hateful material to grow and fester."
In brief
Discuss this story
I see 3 things that this column should do to inform our readers about what is appearing in the media about Wikipedia.
Each one of these has its risks, so we can fail. We took a good shot at each of the 3 points. But if we don't take risks, the column will be pretty boring. We also learn a lot from the comments! Thanks. Smallbones(smalltalk) 00:52, 1 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]