The whole “Wiki” idea really blows my mind. I think it is a great site and I have used it many, many times, but to be honest I am shocked at how accurate it is. Who would have thought that an open information site that allowed ANYONE to edit the published material would be so successful?
Sometimes I can be quite a skeptic about things online – and because of this, I have tried to find errors on Wikipedia. Though I haven’t given a ton of time to this project, I have to admit I didn’t find many. For that reason, I must agree with Dan Gilmore and go on record by saying, “people are generally good.” It really is as simple as that. They are getting more tech saavy, efficient and are utilizing the free speech aspect that online publishing allows them.
I love the idea of WikiTravel. Sure, any blogger could include travel tips on their blog- but because of the nature of this site, a greater number of people can post their opinions and experiences, as well as there is a much larger audience that visits Wikipedia. I wish I would have known about WikiTravel before I studied abroad last winter! I could have saved myself from some horrible, over-priced meals and tourist traps!
On a completely different note, I wanted to address the question that Kathy Gill presents to our class for this week’s discussion: “what’s the difference between “personal” journalism and “news”? To me, this issue is one that is important to bring up. In my opinion, this is one of the largest reasons that blogs aren’t as comprehensive or trustworthy news sources. An author can post any story and portray it however they choose, based on their opinions. If this is so, readers are getting a very skewed vision of what the news is. Whereas, if viewers watch the news on television or read the newspaper there still is bias (but not quite so obvious) and they receive a report on a wide variety of topics. Instead of just focusing on what is “interesting” in their opinion, like blogs.
Yes, blogs serve a distinct purpose. And yes, viewers should realize that they are only receiving one person’s opinion and only part of the news coverafe when viewing blogs, but still… “personal journalism” is still not as accurate or comprehensive as traditional news.
I would still rather get my news coverage from an online newspaper, than a source of “personal journalism”. Newspapers cover all stories and present it in a way that is professional, easy to read and is a credible source that I can trust. Maybe I am too old-fashioned, but I’ll save my blog surfing for Perez-Hilton – my guilty pleasure and the best way to procrastinate (second to facebook, of course!).
1. In order to share the wealth of knowledge that each one of our classmates has: What is your homepage? Which websites are you “addicted” to? Who is the blogger that you trust most?
2. How do you think blogs have changed media coverage on the war, compared to wars in the past? Do you think blogs and social networking have made beneficial changes to the topic of war, or negative? What ethical issues surround the topic of blogging about the war?
I share your thoughts about blogs. How different do you think wiki is from personal journalism when you don’t know who is editing that information?