When notable French composer Maurice Jarre died on March 28th, 2009, Dublin university student Shane Fitzgerald saw a golden opportunity to test accountability in an age of instantly updated global news --a community that's become more and more reliant on Internet research.
And how did he do this, exactly? Easy: by changing the composer's Wikipedia entry, and in the process, duping journalists all across the world.
After a class studying how information traveled through the public sphere, Fitzpatrick saw the opportunity for a curious social experiment. He simply inserted a quote he'd written himself into the Wiki page-- the entire process, from composition to posting, took less than 15 minutes--and then watched as the quote was used repeatedly not only on blogs, but on official news sites. The quote in question:
...was clearly angled to appeal to the average obituary writer working on a deadline. He left it deliberately without any citation--a fact which quickly caught the eye of the thousands of 'voluntary' editors that monitors and edits the public pages of Wikipedia. Administrators promptly removed the unsubstantiated quote, but only after it had begun to circulate in emerging obits and memorials as one new piece cited the older piece.
From MSNBC:
I worked at a university-funded writing centre during my undergrad, and I can't tell you how many times a week I'd have to explain to a student that Wikipedia is an unacceptable source. So a part of me isn't surprised that journalists are still figuring out how to negotiate the cluster of facts we call the Internet. Amid the temptation of so much information, and working against a tight deadline, it can be easy to let something slip and trust that the information is sound.
But it still puts the problem of accountability into glaring perspective, and makes you wonder how often facts like this, no matter how small, go unchecked. My knee jerk reaction is when in doubt, cite it. No one can really fault you for giving TOO much credit.
Source: Student hoaxes world's media on Wikipedia (MSNBC)
And how did he do this, exactly? Easy: by changing the composer's Wikipedia entry, and in the process, duping journalists all across the world.
After a class studying how information traveled through the public sphere, Fitzpatrick saw the opportunity for a curious social experiment. He simply inserted a quote he'd written himself into the Wiki page-- the entire process, from composition to posting, took less than 15 minutes--and then watched as the quote was used repeatedly not only on blogs, but on official news sites. The quote in question:
"One could say my life itself has been one long soundtrack. Music was my life, music brought me to life, and music is how I will be remembered long after I leave this life. When I die there will be a final waltz playing in my head that only I can hear."
...was clearly angled to appeal to the average obituary writer working on a deadline. He left it deliberately without any citation--a fact which quickly caught the eye of the thousands of 'voluntary' editors that monitors and edits the public pages of Wikipedia. Administrators promptly removed the unsubstantiated quote, but only after it had begun to circulate in emerging obits and memorials as one new piece cited the older piece.
From MSNBC:
Fitzgerald said one of his University College Dublin classes was exploring how quickly information was transmitted around the globe. His private concern was that, under pressure to produce news instantly, media outlets were increasingly relying on Internet sources — none more ubiquitous than the publicly edited Wikipedia.When he saw British 24-hour news channels reporting the death of the triple Oscar-winning composer, Fitzgerald sensed what he called "a golden opportunity" for an experiment on media use of Wikipedia.
[...]
If anything, Fitzgerald said, he expected newspapers to avoid his quote because it had no link to a source — and even might trigger alarms as "too good to be true." But many blogs and several newspapers used the quotes at the start or finish of their obituaries.
Wikipedia spokesman Jay Walsh said he appreciated the Dublin student's point, and said he agreed it was "distressing so see how quickly journalists would descend on that information without double-checking it."
I worked at a university-funded writing centre during my undergrad, and I can't tell you how many times a week I'd have to explain to a student that Wikipedia is an unacceptable source. So a part of me isn't surprised that journalists are still figuring out how to negotiate the cluster of facts we call the Internet. Amid the temptation of so much information, and working against a tight deadline, it can be easy to let something slip and trust that the information is sound.
But it still puts the problem of accountability into glaring perspective, and makes you wonder how often facts like this, no matter how small, go unchecked. My knee jerk reaction is when in doubt, cite it. No one can really fault you for giving TOO much credit.
Source: Student hoaxes world's media on Wikipedia (MSNBC)
Posts
