Shane Fitzgerald a UCD student studying sociology and economics purposely posted incorrect information on French composer, Maurice Jarre’s, Wikipedia page.
After learning of Jarre’s death through Sky News on March 30th, Fitzgerald posted a completely made up quote on Wikipedia. His goal was to “show the potential dangers that arise” from journalists’ heavy reliance on the World Wide Web for their news sources.
Shortly after Fitzgerald posted the information Wikipedia administrators removed it and he put it back again. Along came some legitimate newspaper journalists who picked up the information and printed it in their newspapers. These newspapers didn’t know they printed inaccurate information until Fitzgerald informed them.
It is common knowledge that misinformation is posted on Wikipedia. Call me naive but I didn’t realize respected journalists use Wikipedia as their one and only information source.
Why didn’t the journalists do their research? Has getting the news out before competitors come before the goal of quality journalism? Did this story have lower priority than others and as a result was given less time for research and writing? Do consumers demand immediacy over quality?
Hmmm, I think I’ll follow my English teacher’s advice and get my information from more than one source.
Read Shane Fitzgerald’s Lazy Journalism Exposed by Online Hoax at the IrishTimes.com
Read Shane Hegarty’s IrishTimes.com article, Unrealiably Informed, about the problems journalists face in finding reliable information.
0 responses so far ↓
There are no comments yet...Kick things off by filling out the form below.