Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Sources:
Managing
sources
in
rapidly
evolving
global
news
articles
on
the
English
Wikipedia
Wikipedia Sources: Managing sources in rapidly evolving global news articles on the English Wikipedia by Heather Ford, Ushahidi is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License (go here http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-ncsa/3.0/deed.en_US for the full license).
Wikipedia Sources: On the books and on the ground 2012 Heather Ford. Ushahidi 1
Table
of
contents
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.
Introduction
Acknowledgements
Executive
summary
Preface
Sources
on
the
books
Sources
on
the
ground:
The
Case
of
the
2011
Egyptian
Revolution
Wikipedia
article
Conclusions
and
design
considerations
Bibliography
3 5 6 13 15 22 49 57
Wikipedia Sources: On the books and on the ground 2012 Heather Ford. Ushahidi
Introduction
How is a Wikipedia article different from a news article about the 2011 Egyptian revolution at different points in the storys evolution? What are the roles of social media and other Internet sources in rapidly evolving articles? And what, really, is Wikipedias working perspective on social media sources? This report tells the story of Wikipedia sources through a series of case studies including the 2011 Egyptian Revolution Wikipedia article, highlighting how sources were chosen and categorized, what were the most important variables used in discussing sources, and what this might mean for future tool-building and other projects related to sources. What do we mean by sources? My working definition of sources comes from Wikipedias definition but with one important addition. While Wikipedia refers to the characteristics of sources in terms of the references cited in articles (including characteristics of a) the article or book etc, b) the creator and the c) publisher of the work), I add the Wikipedia editor as an important source of the evolving article. Wikipedia editors, it turns out, are important arbiters of truth in rapidly evolving articles, especially since few secondary sources are available to provide analysis (or summaries etc) of the events so close to its start. And although many claim that Wikipedians play a mere janitorial role, it is clear from at least the examples discussed in this report that a much more fundamental role is being played by Wikipedians, especially in the early stage of an event. Why are sources important? Sources (both the reference and editor variety) are important to understand because they mediate what we read, see and hear on Wikipedia. Wikipedia is built on the three foundational content policies of verifiability, no original research and neutral point of view. This means that, according to policy, Wikipedians may only add information that reflects what it calls reliable sources. Furthermore, Wikipedians must add information in a way that fairly represents all significant views of those sources. Sources are used for two key reasons: the first is to determine the notability of an articles subject, the second is to verify information contained within the article. If we look at broad patterns in the English Wikipedias article content, we can see how articles tend to represent the worldview of Wikipedia editors (the sources that I add to the definition provided by Wikipedia). Mark Graham, for example, has shown how the place in which most editors live corresponds with the places that are represented on Wikipedia. He has found that large parts of Africa remain invisible as a result of these differences (Graham, 2011). If we look at another diagram created by Graham and his colleagues at the Oxford Internet Institute (Graham, Stephens, Hale, & Kono, 2012), we can see how these patterns are broadly similar to patterns in the locations of the worlds academic journals, one of the key types of knowledge that Wikipedians consider reliable. Consequently, the location of editors (as one type of Wikipedia source) is a variable that might help readers understand the completeness of an article. Trying to map out these variables is touched on in this report, but could also be expanded in future research.
Wikipedia Sources: On the books and on the ground 2012 Heather Ford. Ushahidi 3
Above map from Wiki Space: Palimpsests and the Politics of Exclusion by Mark Graham in Critical Point of View: W ikipedia Reader, 2011
Bar
graph
to
the
right
entitled
The
location
of
academic
knowledge
from
Graham,
M.,
Hale,
S.
A.
and
Stephens,
M.
(2011)
Geographies
of
the
Worlds
Knowledge.
Ed.
Flick,
C.
M.,
London,
Convoco!
Edition
Wikipedia Sources: On the books and on the ground 2012 Heather Ford. Ushahidi
How
to
design
to
improve
source
management?
Understanding
how
Wikipedians
actually
choose,
verify,
replace
and
debate
sources
is
important
for
designing
better
source
management
tools.
But
what
exactly
is
a
better
source
management
tool?
Although
better
can
mean
many
different
things
to
different
individuals
and
groups,
Ive
taken
it
here
to
reflect
Wikipedias
ultimate
goal
of
becoming
a
globally
relevant
resource.
In
this
case,
source
management
should
be
improved
for
a)
greater
ease
of
use
and
b)
greater
accessibility,
encouraging
design
patterns
that
increase
the
transparency
of
source
origins
and
other
characteristics
with
the
ultimate
goal
of
increasing
the
diversity
of
sources
being
used
in
the
encyclopaedia.
In
accordance
with
key
Wikipedia
principles,
I
believe
design
should
focus
on
the
ability
of
a
reader
to
easily
check
back
to
see
whether
the
information
in
a
Wikipedia
article
reflects
what
are
the
significant
views
about
a
particular
subject.
Making
the
characteristics
of
sources
important
to
decision-making
more
transparent
is
therefore
an
important
design
goal
because
we
want
people
to
choose
and
use
a
source
because
it
is
relevant
rather
than
because
it
will
attract
the
least
debate.
The
report
is
comprised
of
three
main
sections:
the
first
considers
what
Wikipedia
policy
says
about
sources,
the
second
presents
findings
from
a
grounded
theory
study
of
the
2011
Egyptian
Revolution
article,
and
the
third
outlines
key
design
considerations
based
on
these
findings.
Acknowledgements
Id
like
to
thank
a
number
of
individuals
and
organizations
who
made
this
research
possible.
Thanks
to
Hapee
de
Groot
from
Hivos
and
Janet
Haven
from
OSI
for
taking
a
chance
by
funding
their
first
ethnographic
research
project
and
doing
so
with
a
newbie
ethnographer.
Thanks
to
the
Wikimedia
Foundation,
in
particular
Dario
Taraborelli
for
continually
connecting
me
to
other
relevant
research
projects,
and
to
Erik
Moeller
from
dreaming
up
the
project
with
former
SwiftRiver
director,
Jon
Gosier,
and
for
enabling
me
to
base
myself
at
the
Wikimedia
Foundation
offices
in
San
Francisco
for
the
past
eight
months.
To
Professor
Jenna
Burrell
from
the
UC
Berkeley
School
of
Information
for
her
mentorship
and
assistance,
and
to
Wikipedians,
including
Dror
Kamir
who
reviewed
interview
questions.
Thanks
also
to
Shilad
Sen
and
Dave
Musicant
for
entertaining
regular,
fascinating
discussions
about
sources
over
the
past
eight
months
or
so,
to
Rachelle
Annechino
for
her
tremendous
help
editing
this
document
and
last
but
not
least,
the
courageous
Wikipedians
who
I
interviewed
throughout
this
research
and
who
shared
their
perspectives
with
me.
Wikipedia Sources: On the books and on the ground 2012 Heather Ford. Ushahidi 5
Executive
summary
Almost
a
year
ago,
I
was
hired
by
Ushahidi
to
work
as
an
ethnographic
researcher
on
a
project
to
understand
how
Wikipedians
managed
sources
during
breaking
news
events.
Ushahidi
cares
a
great
deal
about
this
kind
of
work
because
of
a
new
project
called
SwiftRiver
that
seeks
to
collect
and
enable
the
collaborative
curation
of
streams
of
data
from
the
real
time
web
about
a
particular
issue
or
event.
If
another
Haiti
earthquake
happened,
for
example,
would
there
be
a
way
for
us
to
filter
out
the
irrelevant,
the
misinformation
and
build
a
stream
of
relevant,
meaningful
and
accurate
content
about
what
was
happening
for
those
who
needed
it?
And
on
Wikipedias
side,
could
the
same
tools
be
used
to
help
editors
curate
a
stream
of
relevant
sources
as
a
team
rather
than
as
individuals?
Figure 1 Original designs for voting a source up or down in order to determine veracity
When we first started thinking about the problem of filtering the web, we naturally thought of a ranking system which would rank sources according to their reliability or veracity. The algorithm would consider a variety of variables involved in determining accuracy as well as whether sources have been chosen and voted up or down by users in the past. Eventually the algorithm would be able to suggest sources according to the subject at hand. My job would be to determine what those variables are, i.e. what were editors looking at when deciding whether to use a source or not? I started the research by talking to as many people as possible. Originally I was expecting that I would be able to conduct 10-20 interviews as the focus of the research, finding out how those editors went about managing sources individually and collaboratively. The initial interviews enabled me to hone my interview guide. One of my key informants urged me to ask questions about sources not cited as well as
Wikipedia Sources: On the books and on the ground 2012 Heather Ford. Ushahidi
those cited, leading me to one of the key findings of the report: that the citation is often not the actual source of information and is often provided in order to appease editors who may complain about sources located outside the accepted Western media sphere. But I soon realized that the editors with whom I spoke came from such a wide variety of experience, work areas and subjects that I needed to restrict my focus to a particular article in order to get a comprehensive picture of how editors were working. I chose the 2011 Egyptian revolution article because I wanted a globally relevant breaking news event that would have editors from different parts of the world working together on an issue with local expertise located in a language other than English. Using Kathy Charmazs grounded theory method, I chose to focus on editing activity (in the form of talk pages, edits, statistics and interviews with editors) from the 25th of January, 2011 when the article was first created (within hours of the first protests in Tahrir Square), to the 12th of February when Mubarak resigned and the article name was changed from '2011 Egyptian protests' to '2011 Egyptian revolution'. After reviewing the big picture analyses of the article using Wikipedia statistics of top editors, and locations of anonymous editors etc, I started work with an initial coding of the actions taking place in the text, asking the question What is happening here? I then developed a more limited codebook using the most frequent/significant codes relating to editor action and proceeded to compare different events with the same code (looking up relevant edits of the article in order to get the full story), and to look for tacit assumptions that the actions left out.
Wikipedia Sources: On the books and on the ground 2012 Heather Ford. Ushahidi 7
I then moved to writing a series of thematic notes on what I was seeing, trying to understand, through writing, what the common actions might mean. I finally moved to the report writing, bringing together what I believed were the most salient themes into a description and analysis of what was happening according to the two key questions that the study was trying to ask i.e. How do Wikipedia editors, working together, often geographically distributed and far from where an event is taking place, piece together what is happening on the ground and then present it in a reliable way? And: how could this process be improved? Ethnographymatters has a great post by Tricia Wang that talks about how ethnographers contribute (often invisible) value to organizations by showing what shouldnt be built, rather than necessarily improving a product that already has a host of assumptions
Wikipedia Sources: On the books and on the ground 2012 Heather Ford. Ushahidi
built
into
it.
And
so
it
was
with
this
research
project
that
I
realized
early
on
that
a
ranking
system
conceptualized
this
way
would
be
inappropriate
for
the
single
reason
that
along
with
characteristics
for
determining
whether
a
source
is
accurate
or
not
(such
as
whether
the
author
has
a
history
of
presenting
accurate
news
article),
there
are
a
number
of
important
variables
that
are
independent
of
the
source
itself.
On
Wikipedia,
these
include
variables
such
as
the
number
of
secondary
sources
in
the
article
(Wikipedia
policy
calls
for
editors
to
use
a
majority
of
secondary
sources),
whether
the
article
is
based
on
a
breaking
news
story
(in
which
case
the
majority
of
sources
might
have
to
be
primary,
eyewitness
sources),
or
whether
the
source
is
notable
in
the
context
of
the
article
(misinformation
can
also
be
relevant
if
it
is
widely
reported
and
significant
to
the
course
of
events
as
Judith
Millers
NYT
stories
were
for
the
Iraq
War).
This
means
that
you
could
have
an
algorithm
for
determining
how
accurate
a
source
has
been
in
the
past,
but
whether
you
make
use
of
the
source
or
not
depends
on
factors
relevant
to
the
context
of
the
article
that
have
little
to
do
with
the
reliability
of
the
source
itself.
Another
key
finding
recommending
against
source
ranking
is
that
Wikipedias
authority
originates
from
its
requirement
that
each
potentially
disputed
phrase
is
backed
up
by
reliable
sources
that
can
be
checked
by
readers,
whereas
source
ranking
necessarily
requires
that
the
calculation
be
invisible
in
order
to
prevent
gaming.
It
is
already
a
source
of
potential
weakness
that
Wikipedia
citations
are
not
the
original
source
of
information
(since
editors
often
choose
citations
that
will
be
deemed
more
acceptable
to
other
editors)
so
further
hiding
how
sources
are
chosen
would
disrupt
this
important
value.
On
the
other
hand,
having
editors
provide
a
rationale
behind
the
choice
of
particular
sources,
as
well
as
showing
the
variety
of
sources
rather
than
those
chosen
because
of
loading
time
constraints
may
be
useful
especially
since
these
discussions
often
take
place
on
talk
pages
but
are
practically
invisible
because
they
are
difficult
to
find.
Analysing
the
talk
pages
of
the
2011
Egyptian
revolution
article
case
study
enabled
me
to
understand
how
Wikipedia
editors
set
about
the
task
of
discovering,
choosing,
verifying,
summarizing,
adding
information
and
editing
the
article.
It
became
clear
through
the
study
of
hundreds
of
talk
pages
that
editors
were:
a) storing discovered articles either using their own editor domains by putting relevant articles into categories or by alerting other editors to breaking news on the talk page,
Wikipedia Sources: On the books and on the ground 2012 Heather Ford. Ushahidi 9
b)
c)
d)
e)
f)
choosing sources by finding at least two independent sources that corroborated what was being reported but then removing some of the citations as the page became too heavy to load, verifying sources by finding sources to corroborate what was being reported, by checking what the summarized sources contained, and/or by waiting to see whether other sources corroborated what was being reported, summarizing by taking screenshots of videos and inserting captions (for multimedia) or by choosing the most important events of each day for a growing timeline (for text), Figure 3 Wikipedia editor, audes method for storing relevant articles during the initial days of the Egyptian adding text to the article by choosing revolution how to reflect the source within the articles categories and providing citation information, and editing by disputing the way that editors reflected information from various sources and replacing primary sources with secondary sources over time.
It was important to discover the work process that editors were following because any tool that assisted with source management would have to accord as closely as possible with the way that editors like to do things on Wikipedia. Since the process is managed by volunteers and since volunteers decide which tools to use, this becomes really critical to the acceptance of new tools.
10
Wikipedia Sources: On the books and on the ground 2012 Heather Ford. Ushahidi
After developing a typology of sources and isolating different types of Wikipedia source work, I identified two sets of design considerations as follows: 1. The first would be to for designers to experiment with exposing variables that are important for determining the relevance and reliability of individual sources as well as the reliability of the article as a whole.
Wikipedia Sources: On the books and on the ground 2012 Heather Ford. Ushahidi 11
2. The second would be to provide a trail of documentation by replicating the work process that editors follow (somewhat haphazardly at the moment) so that each source is provided with an independent space for exposition and verification, and so that editors can collect breaking news sources collectively. Regarding a ranking system for sources, I'd argue that a descriptive repository of major media sources from different countries would be incredibly beneficial but that a system for determining which sources are ranked highest according to usage would yield really limited results (we know, for example, that the BBC is the most used source on Wikipedia by a high margin, but that doesn't necessarily help editors in choosing a source for a breaking news story). Exposing the variables used to determine relevancy (rather than adding them up in invisible amounts to come up with a magical number) and showing the progression of sources over time offers some opportunities for innovation. But this requires developers to think out of the box in terms of what sources (beyond static texts) look like, where such sources and expertise are located and how trust is garnered in the age of Twitter.
12
Wikipedia Sources: On the books and on the ground 2012 Heather Ford. Ushahidi
Preface
How do Wikipedia editors, working together, often geographically distributed and far from where an event is taking place, piece together what is happening on the ground and then present it in a reliable way? What is the role of social media in this process? These were the central questions prompting this project to analyse the current systems that editors use to track and verify news sources on rapidly evolving pages of .en Wikipedia and to investigate the role of social media in this process. Meeting in the early part of 2011, Wikipedia Vice President, Erik Moeller, and Jon Gosier, then-Director of SwiftRiver, an Ushahidi initiative, discussed the opportunity to collaborate. Wikipedians needed better ways of analysing the reliability of news stories and eyewitness accounts from social media sources during important global events, and SwiftRiver needed a partner to test the new software that we were developing to build intelligence into real time news streams. I was brought on in June last year to research ways that Wikipedians were using to manage social media sources during important global events. The problems we were attempting to tackle with this project are broad and complex. 1. There is no transparent way of seeing how each Wikipedia editor has come to the conclusion to accept one news source as credible while dismissing others. 2. Wikipedia editors have limited means of assessing local notability, especially in media environments dissimilar from those in the region where the majority of editors are based. 3. There is no way for Wikipedians to collaboratively track news sources with each editor using their own system for tracking the news during high volume news events. 4. There is widespread confusion surrounding Wikipedias policy on the use of social media sources, with many editors simplifying what is actually a very nuanced policy by decrying the use of any content encased in a social media wrapper. I started the project thinking that I would be through with the research in no time. But as anyone studying Wikipedia knows, the masses of data available for doing this kind of research make the experience a rich one, but can make the process very time intensive, especially since I was determined to gain a deep understanding of how Wikipedia editors work to construct a truth of what has happened using specific examples.
Wikipedia Sources: On the books and on the ground 2012 Heather Ford. Ushahidi 13
In
order
to
gain
this
understanding,
I
used
grounded
theory
methodology
(Charmaz,
2006)
to
analyse
data
and
build
theories
out
of
that
data.
My
data
consisted
of
hundreds
of
pages
of
Talk
from
the
first
15
days
of
the
2011
Egyptian
Revolution
Wikipedia
article,
policy
pages,
policy
debates
on
Meta
and
on
Foundation-l
(now
Wikimedia-l)
mailing
lists,
as
well
as
interviews
with
editors
and
Wikimedia
Foundation
staff.
I
began
my
analysis
with
an
initial
coding
of
these
documents,
drawing
out
common
themes
and
action
verbs,
and
then
developed
a
focused
coding
rubric.
Drawing
together
examples
of
common
themes,
I
then
analysed
the
data,
writing
a
series
of
memos
as
I
became
more
comfortable
with
the
data.
The
result
is
an
initial
report
on
my
findings,
with
a
focus
on
designers
and
developers
who
are
interested
in
developing
tools
for
source
management.
Ethnography
is
known
for
being
an
expensive
research
process:
it
is
incredibly
time
intensive
because
it
aims
for
comprehensiveness
and
thoroughness.
I
hope
that
this
report
does
the
method
justice.
If
there
are
any
errors
or
weaknesses,
they
are
my
own.
Im
looking
forward
to
hearing
the
response
of
Wikipedians
and
Ushahidi
folks
to
the
research
in
the
coming
weeks,
especially
as
we
continue
with
the
second
phase
of
the
Understanding
Sources
project
that
consists
of
tool
building
and
development.
14
Wikipedia Sources: On the books and on the ground 2012 Heather Ford. Ushahidi
Verifiability Neutral point of view (NPOV) is the principle that asks editors to proportionally reflect the current state of knowledge about a subject using independent sources, rather than to strive to reflect their version of what they perceive as the truth. For example, if Wikipedia was around in Greece in the early part of the classical period, it would reflect that the earth was flat, even if some Wikipedians believed that the earth was, indeed, round. At the first publication of significant disputes on the matter, Wikipedians might write that The earth is flat. Some have disputed this claim because with links to reliable sources which might consist of academic papers and peer reviewed journal articles. As opinion gradually tipped towards the current understanding, Wikipedians would have had to decide whether reliable sources collectively indicated that the statement should be changed to The earth is round. Since the decision is not simply a question of calculating the volume of reliable sources in favour or against but rather objectively assessing the quality and dispersion of new ideas, this can be a complex process of debate and wrangling as opposing sources are interrogated, arguments are made on talk pages, edits are refined and consensus is reached, before the process starts up again, iteratively reflecting the current state of play in the relevant field. No original research refers to the policy against using information for which a reliable source does not exist, or publishing what Wikipedians call original thought. At first glance, this rule seems fairly obvious. But disputes arise when Wikipedians synthesize existing sources and others declare that in summarizing, they have created original research. Verifiability is the principle that material (especially information likely to be challenged or being challenged) should be backed up by reliable sources. Verifiability is framed as a way of empowering readers, making transparent the path by which information came to Wikipedia and providing the ability for readers to be able to check whether claims on Wikipedia are backed up by reliable sources. Verifiability is probably the most important policy with regard to source choice but can become problematic when there seem to be
Wikipedia Sources: On the books and on the ground 2012 Heather Ford. Ushahidi 15
equally
reliable
sources
for
opposing
views
about
simple
facts
and
where
the
reliability
(a
predominantly
subjective
term)
of
certain
sources
is
in
dispute.
b)
Verifiability
Verifiability
is
probably
the
most
important
principle
defining
how
sources
are
used
on
the
encyclopedia.
Many
of
us
have
seen
the
citation
needed
link
on
a
Wikipedia
page.
According
to
Wikipedia,
anyone
may
question
an
uncited
claim
by
inserting
a
{{Citation
needed}}
tag.
Wikipedia
focuses
on
this
requirement
as
a
way
to
keep
Wikipedia
content
verifiable,
enabling
any
user
to
check
whether
what
is
claimed
on
Wikipedia
is
accurate.
Figure 5: xkcd cartoon from The
geeky
cartoonist
Randall
Munroe,
creator
of
xkcd,
illustrates
this
ability
in
the
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Webcomic_xkcd_cartoon
to
the
right.
xkcd
depicts
someone
in
a
crowd
asking
the
politician
at
the
_Wikipedian_protester.png
lectern
to
provide
a
source
or
citation
for
what
he
is
talking
about.
He
may
be
referring
to
the
fact
that
politicians
are
not
required
to
provide
citations
and
perhaps
that
this
might
be
part
of
the
problem
of
politics.
On
Wikipedia,
however,
editors
are
held
accountable
for
what
they
write.
According
to
policy,
the
burden
of
evidence
lies
with
the
editor
who
has
added
the
information
and
any
editor
may
remove
information
lacking
an
inline
citation
(WP:
BURDEN)
The
process
of
verifiability
mirrors
one
of
the
key
principles
of
open
source
software:
being
able
to
look
under
the
hood
to
see
how
it
works.
In
the
same
way
that
free
and
open
source
software
declares
the
ability
of
any
programmer
to
be
able
to
look
at
the
code
of
a
program,
the
Wikipedia
verifiability
Figure 6 Example from Wikipedia page on 'Citation needed' (WP:Citation needed) principle
declares
that
ordinary
Wikipedia
users
should
be
able
to
check
whether
a
source
is
being
accurately
reflected
on
Wikipedia.
Encyclopedic
information
is
not
entirely
the
same
as
computer
code,
though,
and
this
is
where
problems
arise
on
the
ground
as
we
shall
see
later.
c)
Reliable
sources
16
Wikipedia Sources: On the books and on the ground 2012 Heather Ford. Ushahidi
Reliable sources may be published materials with a reliable publication process, authors who are regarded as authoritative in relation to the subject, or both. (WP:Reliable sources) Wikipedia requires citations for information that may be contested. But not any citation will do. Wikipedia relies on what it calls reliable sources (or RS for short). Wikipedia sources are at the heart of the encyclopedia since it is built on the claim that it doesnt introduce any new knowledge but rather merely represents what experts already know. As you can see from the above core content policies, reliable sources is the central cog in the wheel of Wikipedia work. Understanding how to recognise or reach consensus on which sources are reliable, how to accurately reflect reliable sources in article that they summarize, as well as how to recognise when one source trumps another in a particular circumstance are all critical skills for successful Wikipedians. If a Wikipedia administrator does not recognize any reliable sources in a newly-created article, it could be deleted immediately on the grounds of no indication of importance without any due process (CSD), or put up for deletion by any Wikipedian who questions its importance by virtue of its lack of sources. A 2011 study by Geiger and Ford found that No indication of importance was overwhelmingly the most frequent reason for the speedy deletion of articles and case studies like the Missing Wikipedians (Ford, 2011) indicate that reliable sources was at the center of deletion debates. According to the Wikipedia: Reliable Sources policy, the word source has three related meanings all of which can affect reliability. It is a common misconception that Wikipedia does not allow social media sources. Actually, The word "source" as used on Wikipedia has three related meanings: Wikipedia policy describes a rough hierarchy the piece of work itself (the article, book), of what constitutes reliable sources from self-published sources, sources such as the creator of the work (the writer, journalist), personal web pages and Tweets which and the publisher of the work (for example, Random House or Cambridge should generally not be used, to third-party, University Press). published sources with a reputation for fact- checking and accuracy which should be used Any of the three can affect reliability. Reliable sources may be published materials as often as possible. with a reliable publication process, authors who are regarded as authoritative in relation to the subject, or both. But for each of these media, the policy states From Wikipedia:Reliable sources some exceptions. Self-published sources can
Wikipedia Sources: On the books and on the ground 2012 Heather Ford. Ushahidi 17
be used to support information about a person or organization being described in articles, and opinion pieces from third-party, published sources might not be used if they are not subject to sufficient editorial oversight. An article about President Barack Obama, for example, might use a Tweet from his verified Twitter account as an example of his unofficial position on a particular issue. Mainstream news reporting is generally considered to be reliable for statements of fact, though even the most reputable reporting sometimes contains errors (WP: Identifying reliable sources) Sometimes news reports are used to back up facts, sometimes they are treated as primary sources and therefore unreliable. Although policy talks about different types of media (e.g. books and academic journals) being more reliable than others, it continually refers to the fact that the reliability of a source depends on context (WP: Identifying reliable sources). Extracting variables in the policy for determining whether a source should be used or not, I created the following list: Variable Rule Exception Number of people involved the more people engaged in checking facts, claims of peer review shouldnt be taken as evidence analysing legal issues, and scrutinizing the that the journal is respected, or that any meaningful writing, the more reliable the publication peer review occurs Peer-reviewed scholarly articles, complete dissertations since they are vetted by the scholarly community Number of citations in Another way of confirming that it has been A corollary is that journals not included in a citation citation indexes vetted and entered mainstream academic index, especially in fields well covered by such discourse (published) is checking the scholarly indexes, should be used with caution, though citations it has received in citations indexes. whether it is appropriate to use will depend on the context. type of article biographies of living persons strictly enforced Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced whether the material is negative, positive, neutral, or just questionable should be removed immediately and without waiting for discussion
18
Wikipedia Sources: On the books and on the ground 2012 Heather Ford. Ushahidi
Wikipedia distinguishes between self-published and published by a reputable third party Focus is on secondary sources, although primary and tertiary sources are allowed in some circumstances. Primary sources should be used with care Articles should rely on secondary sources whenever possible. For example, a review article, monograph, or textbook is better than a primary research paper
Specific to news reporting identity of the author opinions of specialists and recognized experts are more likely to be reliable and to reflect a significant viewpoint. But sources that are not authoritative can be used to reflect the opinion of the author rather than as fact. specificity and depth scholarly sources are better than news reports. Articles that deal in depth with specific studies are better than general articles verified not for passing on rumors and gossip circular sourcing using sources that use Wikipedia as their own source context whether a specific story is reliable for a specific fact or statement in a Wikipedia article will be assessed on a case by case basis reputation Primary, secondary and tertiary sources
Wikipedia Sources: On the books and on the ground 2012 Heather Ford. Ushahidi 19
One way of identifying whether a source is reliable or not is to determine the viewpoint of the source. Wikipedia policies values secondary sources more highly than primary or tertiary sources stating that articles need to be based largely on secondary sources. Secondary sources are third-party sources, one step removed (whether by time or location from an event), whereas primary sources are from eyewitness accounts directly involved in an event. Primary and secondary sources originated in history studies where primary sources were used as artifacts to understand on-the-ground perspectives from a particular time. According to policy, tertiary sources can be used to support broad summaries of topics especially when secondary sources contradict one another. This division of sources can be complicated, though, since journalism can fall into either the secondary source if it provides in-depth analysis but a primary source if it is opinion or eyewitness accounts. Also, Wikipedia can be used as a tertiary source for an article outside of Wikipedia about a topic but it is a primary source in an article about Wikipedia. It seems that there is resistance among many Wikipedians to ever using primary sources, but as the authors of this essay write, "Primary" is not another way to spell "bad"): Primary sources may only be used on Wikipedia to make straightforward, descriptive statements that any educated personwith access to the source but without specialist knowledge will be able to verify are directly supported by the source. This person does not have to be able to determine that the material in
20
Wikipedia Sources: On the books and on the ground 2012 Heather Ford. Ushahidi
the article or in the primary source is True. The goal is only that the person could compare the primary source with the material in the Wikipedia article, and agree that the primary source actually, directly says just what we're saying it does. (Wikipedia: Identifying and using primary and secondary sources) It is therefore the context of the information that determines whether a source is reliable or not, a feature that becomes important when considering design options.
Wikipedia Sources: On the books and on the ground 2012 Heather Ford. Ushahidi 21
B.
Sources
on
the
ground:
the
case
of
the
2011
Egyptian
revolution
article
Background In order to understand how sources are being managed in rapidly evolving articles, I analysed the 2011 Egyptian revolution Wikipedia article on the English Wikipedia. Studying talk pages, edits and others documents, I pieced together conversations, versions and debates from the 25th of January when the article was first created (within hours of the first protests in Tahrir Square), to the 12th of February when Mubarak resigned and the article name was changed from 2011 Egyptian protests to 2011 Egyptian revolution. In these 18 days, editors from the United States, Egypt, Western Europe, the Middle East and elsewhere worked together to build an accurate account of the historic events taking place in Egypt as they happened. Because events were unfolding rapidly, few secondary sources were available to analyse the significance of particular events, or to reflect on which events were most significant. The majority of sources were primary source news accounts by journalists or citizen journalists in the field, or else summarized reports from primary accounts. Because Wikipedians must reflect only what reliable sources (preferably secondary sources) are saying about a particular subject, the challenge became about keeping track of the rapidly evolving news cycle and doing so accurately in one of the most reported global events in the English media in recent years. a) What motivated participation? The PEJ (Pew Research Centers Project for Excellence in Journalism) News Coverage Index indicated that coverage of the Egyptian unrest during the 31 January to 6 February registered as the biggest international story in the past four yearssurpassing any coverage of the Iraq war, the Haiti earthquake and the conflict in Afghanistan (Jurkowitz, 2011). The story was compelling for journalists for a number of reasons that Jurkowitz attempts to explain: One major reason is the number of cameras and journalists (including network anchors) in the country transmitting such riveting scenes as last weeks video of men on camels attacking crowds of protestors in Cairo. Another is the high stakes for the U.S. in one of the worlds most volatile regions as it tries to balance a strategic alliance with President Hosni Mubarak and support of pro- democracy protestors. A third factor may be uncertaintywill Mubarak resign and who will govern after him? And some of last
22
Wikipedia Sources: On the books and on the ground 2012 Heather Ford. Ushahidi
weeks
coverage
was
driven
by
the
fact
that
the
media
themselves
became
part
of
the
storywith
journalists
being
harassed,
attacked
and
detained
amid
the
chaos.
Wikipedia
editing
spikes
generally
tend
to
parallel
media
coverage,
but
there
were
two
additional
motivations
reflected
in
interviews
and
talk
pages
that
were
particular
to
the
Wikipedia
community.
The
first
was
the
unprecedented
shut
down
of
the
Internet
by
the
Egyptian
government,
inciting
Wikipedia
editors
who
use
the
Internet
and
often
take
part
in
activities
to
safeguard
its
freedoms.
In
the
same
way
that
having
journalists
attacked
made
the
story
more
compelling
for
the
media,
the
fact
that
the
lifeblood
of
Wikipedia,
the
Internet,
was
under
attack,
made
this
a
more
compelling
story
for
Wikipedians.
Secondly,
some
of
the
key
editors
who
had
friends
and
family
in
Egypt
or
who
had
spent
time
in
Egypt
said
that
editing
the
article
was
a
way
of
being
involved
in
this
historic
occasion
and
of
representing
the
protesters
stories.
According
to
the
Wikipedia
editor
who
originally
started
the
page,
The
Egyptian
Liberal:
I
think
I
owe
the
people
who
are
protesting
and
those
who
have
passed
away
to
tell
their
story
from
a
NPOV.
I
am
not
nor
can
I
be
in
Egypt
due
my
university
so
that
my
way
of
standing
up
to
Mubarak
and
tell
him
I
shall
not
be
silenced
and
I
shall
tell
the
world
what
happened.
(2011
Egyptian
Revolution:
Talk
page)
The
need
to
be
involved
in
the
historic
retelling
of
events
motivated
hundreds
of
editors
to
participate
in
the
editing
of
the
page,
with
a
few
editors
working
night
and
day
to
manage
the
overall
direction
of
the
article
and
its
forks
as
events
evolved.
When
Mubarak
finally
resigned
on
the
12th
of
February,
2011,
scores
of
editors
attempted
to
change
the
name
of
the
article
from
protests
to
revolution
before
consensus
had
been
reached
on
the
Talk
page.
According
to
one
of
the
top
editors
of
the
page,
User:Aude,
this
was
because
Someone
always
wants
to
be
the
first
to
do
that
(change
the
name).
(Interview,
4
May,
2012)
Having
ones
username
permanently
attached
to
the
edit
that
changed
the
name
to
revolution
seemed
to
be
a
significant
incentive
for
editing,
even
before
general
consensus
had
been
reached.
b)
Who
edited
the
page?
Hundreds
of
editors
made
edits
to
the
2011
Egyptian
Revolution
article,
especially
in
the
first
days
of
the
protests.
Although
we
are
unable
to
see
where
all
edits
originated,
we
can
find
out
where
anonymous
users
were
editing
from
since
their
IP
addresses
are
public.
Looking
up
the
article
on
WikiTrip
(http://sonetlab.fbk.eu/wikitrip/#|en|2011_Egyptian_Revolution
showing
that
the
top
editors),
an
application
created
by
Paolo
Massa
and
others,
we
can
see
that
the
majority
of
users
come
from
the
United
States,
with
significant
edits
originating
from
Poland1,
Egypt,
the
United
Kingdom
and
Canada.
We
can
also
see
that
only
0.05%
of
(anonymous)
editors
of
the
page
indicated
that
1
Probably from the single user from Poland using an IP address who made significant edits before he was banned
Wikipedia Sources: On the books and on the ground 2012 Heather Ford. Ushahidi 23
they were female and that the majority of edits took place from late January (the start of the revolution was January 25) to early February.
Although hundreds of editors made edits to the main article, only a handful of editors stuck with the page for extended periods of time. These editors were essential for steering the overall direction of the page, since the majority of editors tended to focus on specific details without recognizing factors like article size and length that placed limits on the level of detail that could be accommodated in the main article. These editors also decided when and where to fork the article and weighed in on the Talk page when disputes arose. The Egyptian Liberal, the user who started the article, was the most prolific editor by a significant majority. This user played a critical role in the growth and development of the article in both the English and Arabic versions. From his discussions on the Talk page, it appears that he is an Egyptian living outside the country and while he strongly supported the revolutionaries, he attempted to retain his neutral point of view and ask others to edit sections when he felt that his view was compromised (see an alternative perspective by Kamir, 2011).
24
Wikipedia Sources: On the books and on the ground 2012 Heather Ford. Ushahidi
Responding to requests for an interview, he wrote that he does not do interviews, preferring to retain his anonymity on the Wikipedia platform. Other top editors of the article, such as User:Lihaas, Ocaasi and Wipsenade left the page soon after Mubarak resigned and the articles name changed, while anonymous user: 94.246.150.68 (a Polish IP address) was banned during his tenure on the article. c) How the page evolved The first article (originally called 2011 Egyptian protests) soon forked to provide more detailed information about what happened on each of the first days of the protests, responses to the revolution by different countries, and later, what happened under the rule of the armed forces and the subsequent elections.
Wikipedia Sources: On the books and on the ground 2012 Heather Ford. Ushahidi 25
New articles branching out from the original Branching out is defined here as articles that started life as part of the 2011 Egyptian revolution article but were later started as their own page. These pages include: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_reactions_to_the_2011_Egyptian_revolution http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_2011_Egyptian_revolution http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_2011_Egyptian_revolution_under_Hosni_Mubarak%27s_rule http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_2011_Egyptian_revolution_under_Supreme_Council_of_the_Armed_Forces http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domestic_responses_to_the_Egyptian_Revolution_of_2011 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_constitutional_review_committee_of_2011 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trials_and_judicial_hearings_following_the_2011_Egyptian_revolution http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_constitutional_referendum,_2011 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_presidential_election,_2011
New articles related to the revolution that were significantly improved I define new articles here as articles that are related to the 2011 Egyptian revolution page and that, although their subjects were mentioned in the article, werent necessarily significant sections of the original but were started because the article was getting too big and/or because the subject was significant enough to warrant its own page. These include: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslim_Brotherhood_in_Egypt http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_are_all_Khaled_Said http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wael_Ghonim http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asmaa_Mahfouz http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharif_Abdel_Kouddous http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coalition_of_the_Youth_of_the_Revolution http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolutionary_Socialists http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghad_El-Thawra_Party http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dignity_Party_(Egypt) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essam_Sharaf
26
Wikipedia Sources: On the books and on the ground 2012 Heather Ford. Ushahidi
c) What were the main challenges faced by editors with regard to sources? Editors faced four key challenges as they attempted to edit the rapidly evolving article: 1. Collectively keeping track of the news cycle using available tools; 2. Deciding which photographs and video to use with policy that was designed for text rather than multimedia; 3. Deciding whether to use primary or secondary sources; 4. Citing online sources 1. Collectively keeping track of the news cycle using available tools Editors often separated the tasks of editing an article and searching for news. Edits to the article were performed after news search and consumption for two reasons: either because the editor didnt have the time/inclination to edit the page while they were consuming news, and/or because they were waiting for other sources to verify the information contained in a single source. The mechanism used by editors to solve this problem was to attach the news article with a note on the talk page as a kind of heads up for others. The note functioned as: a) a way to alert other editors to recently-released information relevant to the article (important especially since editors were working in different time zones and the talk page would be one of the first places a collaborating editor would go when they woke up or starting editing); b) a request for others to add the source to the article for them if they didnt have the time or the access privileges, for example, if they were editing as an anonymous IP during the periods when the page was semi-protected (some editors saw the discovery of sources and posting to Talk as their single task rather than editing); c) a place to hold sources while they were waiting for other sources or were unsure as to the relevance of the article for inclusion and were asking for opinions of other editors; d) a way to ask other editors to find references for unsourced or incorrectly sourced information on the article.
Wikipedia Sources: On the books and on the ground 2012 Heather Ford. Ushahidi 27
In the example to the left, SilverSerenC alerts editors to the release of a new article by Reuters. He summarizes the articles relevance to the article, highlighting the reference to the armys allegiance to the protesters and the demands by the US for Mubarak to end the Emergency Law. Twenty minutes later, SilverSerenC adds another reference, this time to a Guardian report on a protest being planned for the next day. Lihaas responds with thanks to SilverserenC, adding a checkmark that he has Done the edit. In this case, he adds a phrase to reiterate the armys pledge not to use force against citizens (as highlighted below) but does not specify on the Talk page exactly which edit has been done. Looking at the actual edits on the page, we see Lihaass addition, shaded in blue below, as well as the edit summary that refers back to the Talk page.
Revision as of 23:10, 31 January, 2011 by Lihaas: The top Egyptian generals, led by Tantawi, held back the military,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.couriermail.com.au/ipad/nationlocked-in-a-deadly-stalemate/story-fn6ck51p1225997761161|title=Nation locked in a deadly stalemate}}</ref> as the army as a whole again pledged not to use force on the citizens of Egypt and said they had a legitimate cause for their rioting.<Ref>http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/01/ 31/idINIndia-54544320110131</ref> Edit summary: (ref from talk --> tv sources WILL come..)
Keeping track
Other editors employed their user pages to keep track of the latest news and categorize articles for later editing. User:Aude
28
Wikipedia Sources: On the books and on the ground 2012 Heather Ford. Ushahidi
employed one of her user pages to paste citations for relevant articles, photographs, videos etc related to the article as they happened. In an interview, she said that did this because she would be reading the news, rather than editing, and wanted a quick way to store relevant articles for later editing. In the figure to the right is a section of the page containing links related to the Egyptian army that she was storing during the first two weeks of the protests. 2. Deciding which photographs and video to use Criteria for reliable sources didnt work very well for images and video, and editors had to develop a highly sophisticated understanding of bias as related to the placing, representation and choice of image and videos in the article. Video and image sources are different from text-based sources for a number of reasons. The first is that they need to be represented in whole, rather than an excerpt and the policies and laws around using video and image sources as references are not as well defined as textual excerpts. Images and video are more often sourced from social media or unaffiliated individuals rather than from traditionally published reliable sources. This is because, unlike text, video and images must be licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Share- Alike license in order to be used on the page. Wikipedias policy on multimedia seeks to ensure that copies can be freely and legally made of the articles and that others may republish them. But if images or multimedia contain no license, even if they are meant for republication (such as the raw video footage from protesters uploaded to YouTube) Wikipedia editors must try to contact the authors and ask if they might license the work under CC. This can be a time-consuming (sometimes impossible) task, which is why repositories like Flickr (that explicitly ask uploaders if they want to license their content under CC) are more popular. In the case of the 2011 Egyptian Revolution article, User: Aude was in touch with Al Jazeerah who agreed to license their images and video under a freer CC license than their default so that content could be integrated into the article. She said that Al Jazeerah was receptive of their requests and acted quickly to free up the photographic and video content useful to Wikipedia. But editors still needed to choose from the multitude of photographs and video. Particular challenges relating to images and video were deciding how to present political cartoons and videos from a neutral point of view. a) Presenting video with NPOV An Al Jazeera English video (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Al_jazeera_2011_egypt_protests.ogv) was embedded in the article next to the 28th of January section of the timeline (see screenshot to the left captured from the 06:46 UTC 29 January version of the article). The video shows live footage and
Wikipedia Sources: On the books and on the ground 2012 Heather Ford. Ushahidi 29
commentary from Al Jazeera journalists who were trying to avoid tear gas to bring the images to viewers. The video shows images of protesters gathering outside the Hilton Hotel in downtown Cairo, then tear gas being thrown at them to disperse them while Al Jazeera journalists relate what is happening from a nearby building. On the 29th of January, User: Peter G Werner complains to editors about the video with specific reference to its being embedded in the article, rather than being used as an article reference (i.e. externally linked). He notes that this raises all kinds of NPOV issues (2011 Egyptian Revolution Talk page: 06:49, 29 January 2011 UTC). Ocaasi defends the video writing that it is merely descriptive of local surroundings and events and not editorializing at all and claims that Al Jazeera English is dead center politically (relative to the New York Times and the Egyptian government) (2011 Egyptian Revolution Talk page: 09:04, 29 January 2011 UTC). User: James (T C) writes that It is quite clear who is speaking (not us, them) (09:32) and User: Geni writes the last note in the conversation declaring that Its the only video coverage we have of events and that its under a free license so you can edit the sound/chop up the visual if you want (17:15). None of these responses really get to the heart of Werners complaint, however. It seems that the majority of editors feel that the video merely represents the facts of the situation (as Ocaasi writes: it is merely descriptive) but media scholars would note that camera angles, commentary and a variety of choices made by the journalists mean that no image or video is merely descriptive. In this case, the perspective of the camera is on the protesters rather than the (unseen) forces throwing tear gas canisters. Additionally, were hearing from the journalists who are portrayed as victims of the tear gas, thus eliciting sympathy from the viewer, and although most of the commentary merely relates what is happening in the images and providing context as to where the images are being captured, the narrating journalist invites viewers to empathize with the protesters rather than the government: As you can imagine the tear gas is making it very difficult for us to see You can imagine what it's like for the protesters I mean, we are several dozen feet above the street level from our studio you can see these pictures and now that area has kind of been dispersed as a result of the tear gas. You can see some of the people at the hotel trying to run... Ocaasis comments represent a common misrepresentation of the reliability of sources with his comment that Al Jazeera English is dead center politically, probably because he feels he needs to defend against a general bias against Al Jazeera by many editors. But in doing so, he ignores Werners complaint: Werner isnt complaining that Al Jazeera is biased, hes complaining that the placing of the reference inside the article, almost as a statement in the same voice as the text of the article, is POV. James (T C) does respond to this particular complaint, saying that it is quite clear who is speaking (not us, them) especially since the caption on the video does make it clear whose perspective is being showcased. On the other hand, there are no further sources used in the text of the article to verify what is pictured in this video as occurring around the Hilton Hotel on the 28th.
30
Wikipedia Sources: On the books and on the ground 2012 Heather Ford. Ushahidi
Understanding how the use of video relates to NPOV and verifiability is a challenging issue for editors because it requires new ways of framing and verifying information that differ from textual mechanisms. b) Presenting illustrations with NPOV Knowledgekid87 nominates the Egyptian revolution article for a POV check (which involves a warning tag being placed on the page) because he says that both cartoons used on the page side(d) with protesters (00:26 UTC, 29 January 2011). Others weigh in, debating how to more accurately reflect an NPOV.
Figure 7 Original selection of the page nominated for a POV check by Knowledgekid87 at 00:28, 29 January, 2011
Wikipedia Sources: On the books and on the ground 2012 Heather Ford. Ushahidi 31
Others make suggestions to resolve the issue or extend the critique: a) Ocaasi suggests (perhaps sarcastically) adding a political cartoon that sides with the government. Ocaasi writes: Political cartoons don't usually side with oppressive regimes. Do you have one that does? We can add it... b) He then suggests Mov(ing) the cartoons to the reception section rather than as illustration for the factual content. The reception section of the article was where editors added summaries of responses to the protests in Egypt and internationally. c) Peter G Werner weighs in to add that justification (needs to) be given that these cartoons are newsworthy in themselves, clearly representative of world reaction. d) The Egyptian Liberal responds with images showing that (Latuffs) cartoons (are) being held by the protesters during their marches. e) Peter G Werner suggests using one of the images of Latuffs cartoons held by protestors instead of the one in the article and adding text that put(s) it in(to) context. f) One the cartoons is subsequently removed.
Figure 8 Latuff cartoon moved from the Protests section to the Domestic responses: Media censorship section (Egyptian revolution article as at 00:56, 31 January 2011) as a result of the POV check
32
Wikipedia Sources: On the books and on the ground 2012 Heather Ford. Ushahidi
Figure 9 Khaled Mohamed Saeed cartoon is removed and caption is edited to include more context.
Figure 10 Figures above showing the 00:28, 29 January 2011 (POV check) and the 00:56, 31 January 2011 versions of the photo captions after the POV check
Wikipedia Sources: On the books and on the ground 2012 Heather Ford. Ushahidi 33
This example shows that POV checks may be useful for improving content. Editors are incentivized here to review all the content of the page in order to have the POV tag removed so that they are able to prove the quality of the article against one of the most fundamental Wikipedia policies, NPOV. We can also see here that multimedia may require special NPOV guidelines because the context and placement of images or video is critical to its neutrality, unlike textual information. 3. Deciding whether to use primary or secondary sources At 04:32 UTC on the 28th of January, an anonymous user asks other editors to add Joe Bidens comments on Mubarak as reported in the Christian Science Monitor [1] to the article. Eight minutes later, The Egyptian Liberal has summarized the story from the Christian Science Monitor article and added his summary it to the International reactions section as US Vice President Joseph Biden said "...were encouraging the government to act responsibly and and to try to engage in a discussion as to what the legitimate claims being made are, if they are, and try to work them out.", as well as choosing not to refer Mubarak as a dictator and that he should not step down [1] The Egyptian Liberal marks the task as Done on the Talk page. The next day, Abrazame alters the text of the sentence, removing the phrase: as well as choosing not to refer Mubarak as a dictator and that he should not step down and replacing the quote with the following: US Vice President Joseph Biden said Hosni Mubarak "has been an ally of ours in a number of things. And hes been very responsible on, relative to geopolitical interest in the region, the Middle East peace efforts: the actions Egypt has taken relative to normalizing relationship with Israel."[1] In the actual transcript of the interview this line is followed by the words: And I think that it would be -- I would not refer to him as a dictator2.
2 Interview transcript: JIM LEHRER: The word -- the word to describe the leadership of Mubarak and Egypt and also in Tunisia before was dictator. Should Mubarak be seen as a dictator? JOE BIDEN: Look, Mubarak has been an ally of ours in a number of things and he's been very responsible on, relative to geopolitical interests in the region: Middle East peace efforts, the actions Egypt has taken relative to normalizing the relationship with Israel.
34
Wikipedia Sources: On the books and on the ground 2012 Heather Ford. Ushahidi
But
Abrazame
writes
that
the
Christian
Science
Monitors
headline
Joe
Biden
says
Egypt's
Mubarak
no
dictator,
he
shouldn't
step
down...
is
a
twisting
of
Bidens
words
and
that
such
U.S.-partisan
baiting
does
not
belong
in
this
article.
Abrazame
contends
on
the
Talk
page
that
the
actual
conversation
with
Biden
was
very
different
from
the
way
it
was
presented
in
the
headline.
User:Missionary
disagrees
on
the
Talk
page,
writing
that
the
story
made
headlines
(in)
several
unrelated
reliable
sources
pointing
to
three
articles
from
CBS
News
(Joe
Biden:
"Speaker
Boehner
and
I
are
Friends
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20029872-503544.html),
Fox
News
(Biden:
Mubarak
should
not
step
down
Current
(10
May,
2012)
citation
to
a
section
of
the
original
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/01/28/biden-mubarak-step/)
PBS
NewsHour
interview
video
from
w here
the
quotes
came
and
the
Malaysian
Sun
(U.S.
comes
to
defense
of
Egyptian
government,
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2011/01/exclusive-biden- http://story.malaysiasun.com/index.php/ct/9/cid/b8de8e630faf3631/i discusses-unrest-in-egypt-keeping-us-competitive.html
d/737115/cs/1/ht/US-comes-to-defence-of-Egyptian-government/),
and
linking
to
the
transcript
of
the
interview
on
PBS
news
(http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/politics/jan-june11/biden_01- 27.html).
Abrazame
replies
in
an
unusually
long
post
that
Wikipedia
editors
should
not
be
swayed
by
provocative
headline
writers
who
have
other
agendas
and
that
by
using
this
twisted
version
they
would
be
committing
the
sin
of
POV
(point
of
view).
Surely
you
know
that
headline
writers
are
there
to
be
provocative
in
order
get
hits
and/or
sell
copy,
and
that
syndicates
and
the
blogosphere
thrives
on
such
provocativeness,
preferring
to
bandy
about
the
broadest
and
bluntest
conclusion-jumping
if
it
fits
into
their
"storyline",
rather
than
actually
read
and
comprehend
the
words
and
their
context.
He
also
writes
that
Using
this
article
to
amplify
this
aspect
of
the
VP's
interview
seems
POV
and
that
such
a
provocative
statement
should
have
more
than
one
misreading
of
a
source
no
matter
how
many
sites
mirror
this
amplified
misinterpretation
to
support
it.
And
I
think
that
it
would
be
--
I
would
not
refer
to
him
as
a
dictator.
(From
PBS.org
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/politics/jan-june11/biden_01- 27.html)
Wikipedia Sources: On the books and on the ground 2012 Heather Ford. Ushahidi 35
32 minutes later, the citation is revised by Sergeo who replaces the Christian Science Monitor article with a link to a video [3] of a section of the interview (not the section that is quoted in the article) with an edit summary claiming that the PBS cite is a Direct source and that it was done for neutrality reasons. Sergeo uses the term direct source perhaps because he would rather not use the less acceptable primary source term. Interestingly, the PBS citation contains only a selection of the entire interview video and does not contain the selection quoted. Sergeo uses the term direct source but the original, full-length source (in which the quote that is used occurs) is located at another URL (http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/politics/jan-june11/biden_01-27.html and http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=N-_1FMTMzRg) and a more direct source would be the actual line used in the context of the entire interview. It seems that Wikipedias current policies on sources leave questions relating to appropriate sources here. In terms of the verifiability principle, it seems more appropriate to link to the actual video of the interview so that users are able to check up on what Biden actually said, as well as the context in which it was said. But the verifiability principle also indicates that Wikipedia should merely reflect what reliable sources say about an event rather than the truth of what actually happened. None of the numerous articles published from reliable sources on both sides of the partisan divide about the speech leave out Bidens words: I would not refer to him as a dictator as the Wikipedia article does and it seems that the primary source is being used to prevent having to refer to any secondary source that would contain this information. The question becomes, what should Wikipedians do when news sources twist the truth because of skewed incentives and minimal resources that tend to see other sources merely mirroring these incorrect versions? It may seem better to be able to go directly to the primary source, especially when this is increasingly possible, but the problem is that in many cases, Wikipedians must summarize the primary source and in doing so do not always reflect what the majority of secondary sources are highlighting. This may be a particular problem of news media since news media is particularly subject to partisan bias, recentism and the influences of advertisers and investors, but it is becoming a more common problem. In the end, Abrazame and Sergeo seem to have won this round because the paragraph wasnt edited again, nor was Abrazames (very long) Talk post responded to (the sentence is now on the split off page entitled: International reactions to the 2011 Egyptian revolution (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_reactions_to_the_2011_Egyptian_revolution). Someone could edit the page now, but it is well known that timing (and consequently the attention that such timing garners) is the most important variable in these stories. Another issue raised by this example is the question of when an editor needs to reach consensus on the Talk page before editing. There are numerous examples where editors revert and reinstate edits without discussion on the Talk page, but here it seems that Abrazame is attempting to use the Talk page as a way to drive his agenda with long speeches -- perhaps too long for editors to read and challenge. Abrazame himself edits the page before making his critique of the previous edit but then reverts Missionarys edit because he writes that he should discuss it on the talk page rather than just reverting. Since Abrazame has the last word on the talk page about the issue, it
36
Wikipedia Sources: On the books and on the ground 2012 Heather Ford. Ushahidi
seems
that
it
has
been
settled
in
his
favor,
when
it
could
be
that
Missionary
has
given
up
due
to
the
length
of
Abrazames
posts
and
his
obvious
determination
on
the
topic.
It
may
seem
too
much
of
a
battle
to
fight
and
so
there
is
little
oversight.
Citations
(as
they
appear/ed
in
the
article):
1:
Murphy,
Dan
(January
26,
2011).
"Joe
Biden
says
Egypt's
Mubarak
no
dictator,
he
shouldn't
step
down".
The
Christian
Science
Monitor.
Retrieved
January
28,
2011.
2:
Biden:
Mubarak
Should
Not
Step
Down*
3:
Murphy,
Dan**
(January
26,
2011).
"Exclusive:
Biden
Discusses
Unrest
in
Egypt,
Keeping
U.S.
Competitive".
PBS.
Retrieved
January
28,
2011.
*
The
above
source
is
from
Fox
News.com.
Interesting
that
it
is
not
included.
There
is
significant
opposition
to
using
Fox
News
as
a
Reliable
Source
so
it
may
be
that
the
editor
is
trying
to
bury
the
reference.
**
It
is
incorrect
that
Dan
Murphy
is
the
author.
Dan
Murphy
was
the
author
of
the
Christian
Science
Monitor
article
but
doesnt
appear
in
the
PBS
video.
Probably
an
edit
error
when
the
citation
was
changed.
Time
Editor
28
January
2011
04:32
76.124.12.112
Edit
Edit
summary
Talk
post
Notes
Joe Biden's comments on Mubarak and legitimacy of protestors Please add his comments as described in CS Monitor http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Backchannels/2011/012 7/Joe-Biden-says-Egypt-s-Mubarak-no-dictator-he-shouldn-t- step-down
Anonymous user asks editors to add Bidens comments to the article and references the Christian Science Monitor piece [1].
04:39 04:41
04:39: US Vice President Joseph Biden said "...were encouraging the government to act
none
04:41:
Done
The Egyptian Liberal summarizes the story from the Christian Science Monitor article
Wikipedia Sources: On the books and on the ground 2012 Heather Ford. Ushahidi 37
responsibly and and to try to engage in a discussion as to what the legitimate claims being made are, if they are, and try to work them out.", as well as choosing not to refer Mubarak as a dictator and that he should not step down [1] 29 January 2011 02:36- Abrazame 02:40
and adds it to the International reactions section after anonymous user asks for editors to add the information on the Talk page
02:36: US Vice President Joseph Biden said Hosni Mubarak "has been an ally of ours in a number of things. And hes been very responsible on, relative to geopolitical interest in the region, the Middle East peace efforts: the actions Egypt has taken relative to normalizing relationship with Israel."[1]
International: C overage of this statement takes out of context and overstates diplomatic refusal to let an interviewer put words into his mouth
02:51
Missionary
Undid revision
02:40: His comments "as described in the Christian Science Monitor" are a partisan POV twisting of his words, and such U.S.-partisan baiting does not belong in this article. Biden was asked two or three days ago, "if the time has "come for President Mubarak of Egypt to go?" Biden answered: "No. I think the time has come for President Mubarak to begin to move in the direction that to be more responsive to some... of the needs of the people out there." This is not the same as the title of that smear piece characterizes, that Biden says he "shouldn't" step down. At the time, Obama had not personally made an official comment; now that he has, the CSM's twisting of the Vice President's words, which was never in proper context, are even less necessary or relevant. Responding to questions about "would you say this, and would you say that" as "no, that's not what I would say" doesn't mean you don't think those things, it simply means the Vice President isn't falling into the trap of letting people put words in his mouth at a time that requires diplomacy. That the CSM would put the opposite of those words in his mouth is no more relevant or appropriate to parade as if it were the Vice President's opinion. What is relevant to this situation is the desire for continuity in peace treaties that Mubarak has adhered to as a U.S. ally, so rather than removing the section again in its entirety, I have left in the part that speaks to that legitimately relevant point. Abrazame (talk) 02:40, 29 January 2011 (UTC)
Abrazame alters the text, removing the phrase: as well as choosing not to refer Mubarak as a dictator and that he should not step down and replacing the quote with another.
Missionary undoes
38
Wikipedia Sources: On the books and on the ground 2012 Heather Ford. Ushahidi
03:03
03:33
Missionary
Biden said Hosni Mubarak should not step down, and that "Mubarak has been an ally of ours in a number of things. And hes been very responsible on, relative to geopolitical interest in the region, the Middle East peace efforts; the actions Egypt has taken relative to normalizing relationship with with Israel. ... I would not refer to him as a dictator."[1][2] US Vice President Joseph Biden said Hosni Mubarak "has been an ally of ours in a number of things. And hes been very responsible on, relative to geopolitical interest in the region, the Middle East peace efforts: the actions Egypt has taken relative to normalizing relationship with Israel."[1]
410682826 by Abrazame (ta lk) Edit goes against the unanimous opinion of Reliable Sources
Abrazames revision because he writes that it goes against the unanimous opinion of Reliable Sources and adds the phrase: ... I would not refer to him as a dictator. to the quote from Biden.
Undid revision 410684863 by Missionary (t alk) Please discuss this on the talk page rather than just reverting POV into the article
Abrazame reverts it back to his edit and asks Missionary to discuss this on the talk page rather than just reverting POV.
Disagree This is not a smear piece, it made headlines of several unrelated reliable sources([2][3][4]) It really is important as a reflection of the US view towards Middle East authoritarian regimes from a high authority. There is no broader context to be had here (see transcript), Biden really meant to express his belief that Mubarak is not a dictator and that he should not step down. Surely you know that headline writers are there to be provocative in order get hits and/or sell copy, and that syndicates and the blogosphere thrives on such provocativeness, preferring to bandy about the broadest and bluntest conclusion-jumping if it fits into their "storyline",
04:08
Abrazame
Wikipedia Sources: On the books and on the ground 2012 Heather Ford. Ushahidi 39
rather than actually read and comprehend the words and their context. It is not relevant to this developing story about Egypt that the Vice President of the U.S. doesn't want interviewers putting words into his mouth. Biden is not asked if Mubarak is a dictator, he is asked if Mubarak should be seen as a dictator, and what Biden replies is that he "would not refer to him as a dictator" (emphasis is mine). Biden does not say that Mubarak "is not" a dictator, it is the headline writer who says that Biden has said this. It is not relevant, then, whether the news agency mistitles it as such, nor that Fox News and the Malaysian Sun run with the headline that claims Biden says something that he does not, particularly when we have the actual transcript to show us this. But this is not merely an argument about semantics, it is one about diplomacy, one that Biden chose to approach diplomatically given the sensitivity of the relationship, given the sensitivity of the then-nascent situation there, and given that he didn't want to get out in front of a story by making clumsily bellicose characterizations of allies. The fact that the U.S. considers Egypt an ally (and a primary reason the U.S. considers Egypt an ally) is arguably relevant to this article (though arguably no less relevant to others who appreciate and wish to maintain the peace Egypt made with Israel), so I thought a good compromise was to restore that aspect of his comments. Would you argue that the use of the term "dictator" is more relevant than the underpinnings of this relationship? It strikes me that this is the approach of a tabloid, rather than that of an encyclopedia. I may be wrong, but I'm not aware of either President Obama or Secretary of State Clinton saying that they would "refer" to him as a dictator (or, indeed, doing so), and the point is that this is what diplomacy is all about. All of them seem to be on the same page that they would like the outcome of this to be decided in a peaceful way by the Egyptian people without the U.S. calling for "dictators" to "step down" as they move toward elections to choose a new leader going forward. It is implicit that leaders who care about preserving lives, much less leaders whose countries have treaties and trade pacts with another country, would prefer a peaceful succession of
40
Wikipedia Sources: On the books and on the ground 2012 Heather Ford. Ushahidi
04:40
Sageo
government rather than a bloody upheaval that throws all of their mutual interests into question. Stating publicly that you're not going to use disparaging characterizations against such an ally, given that this ally has indicated he will hold such elections (thereby implying that he may be ready to stop being whatever sort of leader one may characterize him as), is a diplomatically appropriate choice. Using this article to amplify this aspect of the VP's interview seems POV. Doing so because it is your misperception that Biden thinks that Mubarak should remain in power for the foreseeable future is a misinterpretation of the interview, one that is fueled by the influence of the POV headlines and not by a nuanced reading and digestion of the actual words and their context, and shows a naive misunderstanding of the responsibility of speech by U.S. leaders. If they say one thing, they may be accused of fomenting another country's civil war or even implying tactical support for such. (Remember Iran not long ago?) If they say another thing, they may be accused of backing a leader over his people. I don't think that any responsible reading of this interview takes away that Biden is saying the latter. Put another way, as it seems to be your assertion that the U.S. wants Mubarak to remain in power rather than hold those elections and have a peaceful transfer of power, or for Mubarak to be unyielding (dictatorial) to the demands of his people for however long he might hold onto his position in advance of such an election, can you cite any other reliably sourced, non-POV-twisting statement to support that? Because selecting this one aspect to misquote out of context is an irresponsible amplification of a position, that Biden and by extension the U.S. government actually wants Mubarak to stay on, and such a provocative statement should have more than one misreading of a source no matter how many sites mirror this amplified misinterpretation to support it. Abrazame (talk) 04:08, 29 January 2011 (UTC)
Wikipedia Sources: On the books and on the ground 2012 Heather Ford. Ushahidi 41
4. Citing online sources In the excerpt below, you can find an example of an editor bringing an incomplete source to the talk page. Here, Ocaasi makes a new section on the talk page entitled NEWS DESK (sourcing and verification) and asks editors to Use this section to post requests for sources, statements needing verification. (Talk:2011_Egyptian_revolution/Archive_3)
Reference request:
In this example, Ocaasi notes that the opposition leader has not been named and that a traceable source needs to be provided. The editor who had made the edit was probably watching Al Jazeerahs live news coverage as many were during the events. Other editors respond with inconclusive replies perhaps because Ocaasi hasnt explicitly asked for what he is looking for. About 11 hours later, Silverseren finds an online source referring to the Al Jazeera report and another editor, Lihaas, edits the reference in the article, concluding the collaborative turn.
Interestingly, the text of the article referred to Al Jazeeras report and did not mention the opposition leaders name. The article was from the blogs section of the LA Times and a large logo of the Carnegie Middle East Center on the page indicated that it was written by the staff of the LA Times and the Carnegie Middle East Center. Below youll find the article with phrases referring to other news media reports in bold red. Also notice the original URL probably from an earlier headline that specified the source of the information (i.e. Al Jazeera). EGYPT: Opposition plans to negotiate with military, not president January 30, 2011 | 1:34 pm LA Times
42
Wikipedia Sources: On the books and on the ground 2012 Heather Ford. Ushahidi
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2011/01/arab-satelite-network-al-jazeera-has-reported-that-egyptian- opposition-leaders-say-that-their-negotiations-for-a-transition.html Arab satellite network Al Jazeera has reported that Egyptian opposition leaders plan to negotiate a transition government with the Egyptian army, which maintained a heavy presence throughout the country on Sunday, and not longtime President Hosni Mubarak. Al Jazeera reporters blogged that protesters still crowded Cairo's Tahrir Square after 11 p.m. Sunday, calling for Mubarak to resign. At one point, protesters spelled out "Down with Mubarak" with their bodies, the network reported. Heavy machine-gun fire could be overheard Sunday night as thousands of protesters marched through downtown Alexandria, CNN's Nic Robertson reported. Army troops were positioned in various parts of the port city, having moved some of their checkpoints over the weekend. Maajid Nawaz, executive director of the Quilliam Foundation, a London-based think tank, told Al Jazeera that Mubarak was a liability to political allies within Egypt and overseas. (An image of the article in the figure to the left) Lihaas added the reference to the article as seen below but he only added the URL, rather than the full citation. The citation was expanded the next day but still contained the question of exactly which opposition leader made the statement. As at 15 May, 2012 the citation had been cleaned up to contain the title of the article, the publication and the retrieval date but is missing important information necessary to understanding the fact that the original reporting was done by Al Jazeera and not the LA Times and even that secondhand
Wikipedia Sources: On the books and on the ground 2012 Heather Ford. Ushahidi 43
reporting was done by bloggers rather than staff of the LA Times. Original phrase (brought to the talk page by Ocaasi at 09:01, 31 January, 2012): An opposition leader[who?] said that talks would not be held with Mubarak but only with the army.[113] Revision as of 21:34, 31 January 2011 by Lihaas (adding the ref URL) An opposition leader{{Who|date=January 2011}} said that talks would not be held with Mubarak but only with the army.<ref>http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2011/01/arab-satelite-network-al-jazeera-has-reported-that- egyptian-opposition-leaders-say-that-their-negotiations-for-a-transition.html</ref> Later the next day, changed to: ^ "EGYPT: Opposition plans to negotiate with military, not president | Babylon & Beyond | Los Angeles Times". Latimesblogs.latimes.com. Retrieved 2011-01-31. And as of 15 May, 2012 the text reads: Egyptian opposition leaders said that talks would be held only with the army.[84] "Egypt: Opposition Plans To Negotiate with Military, Not President". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 31 January 2011. The convention of Headline title + publisher + retrieval date (sometimes preceded by the author of the article if known) is used as the format for the majority of references. Editors may use citation templates (see below) to insert appropriate information and format the citation correctly but the templates do not enable editors to reflect complex authorship of forms such as newspaper weblogs where the content is often written by authors outside of the publications core staff or where it may contain information that is unverified (due to the
44
Wikipedia Sources: On the books and on the ground 2012 Heather Ford. Ushahidi
Wikipedia Sources: On the books and on the ground 2012 Heather Ford. Ushahidi 45
d) How was information verified? Information was verified by editors in a number of ways, from simply checking the source to see whether it was accurately reflected in the article text, to counting sources that named events differently. 1. Avoiding single sources When editors brought breaking news to the Talk page, some continuously called for refraining from using the sources to edit the page when only a single news channel was reporting the information. On the 28th of January, Kuzwa brings an update to the Talk page writing that Wikileaks has released a new cable which claims that America has been secretly supporting the pro-democracy movement in Egypt since at least 2008. Also, it looks like major democratic reforms in Egypt were planned for 2011 through some sort of plot. Not sure if this plot counted in Tunisia's collapse or not. See here: [5] --Kuzwa (talk) 21:25, 28 January 2011 (UTC) Ocaasi replies: Think we should wait a bit on it for confirming sources. Nothing against the Vancouver Sun but this should be reported in multiple places if it's accurate and notable. Ocaasi (talk) 22:21, 28 January 2011 (UTC) A few minutes later, other editors discover that the article cited does not refer to the USs support of Egypt. 2. Wait and see This phrase became a constant refrain among edits on the Talk page of the article. Editors would bring breaking news to the page, and when there was only a single source available to verify the information, editors would ask others to wait and see whether other news outlets were saying the same thing. Dont do too much synthesis until reliable secondary sources have reviewed the events and ascertained which are the most important. After some editors call for a split of the timeline section of the article on 3 February, User:Wnt replies that he hopes secondary sources will review and prioritize/summarize events so that editors could then reflect that summary in future versions of the article. Im hoping some secondary source will review events so far, and provide a good outline to follow in terms of how the development of events unfolded. Wnt (talk) 05:43, 3 February 2011 (UTC) Wnts comment reflects one of the problematic issues involving the writing of encyclopedic articles so close to an event. As an article grows, information will need to be summarized in order to keep the article concise. But in order to summarize, editors must prioritize
46
Wikipedia Sources: On the books and on the ground 2012 Heather Ford. Ushahidi
what is important without doing any of their own synthesis (in which case they would be abandoning NPOV and developing what they call original research). Since the news media tends to produce analysis only after producing hard news stories about day to day happenings, these sources can be hard, if not impossible, to come by especially since so many editors would rather edit the page than waiting to see as some users call for. 3. Reading the article/watching the footage/understanding the context of the original source to check whether the information has been accurately represented. On the third of February, IP .68 complained on the talk page that a screenshot of Al Jazeera video footage entitled "Police in civilian cloth beating a protester in Cairo 1.png" had been inaccurately captioned. It was not clear by watching the footage that this particular shot identified police beating up protesters. Other editors chimed in with possible changes to the caption, for example: "A violent scene from the January 28 Cairo protests" suggested by [User:Physics is all gnomes] who said that he had tried mentioning the reports of plainclothes officers beating protesters, but decided it violated WP:SYNTHESIS (the policy ). [Physics] also added a link to the video and the pictured scenes location in the timeline (roughly 1:50) for others editors reference since this was not included in the image information. The caption was altered and then the photo was removed soon afterwards. 4. Finding sources that confirm a single source Figure 13: From the 2011 Egyptian Revolution article Since so many editors were watching live Al Jazeera television coverage of the events, the at 12:32, 1 Feb 2011 core editors had to work together to find online sources to back up information that was cited to television. In the example below, an editor was watching television news coverage and heard an opposition leader saying that talks would only be held with the army (rather than with Mubarak). He edits the page to reflect this with a citation to a TV source. Ocaasi brings this reference to the talk page and asks for more information on the leaders name and the source. Other editors respond with what they suspect it was but with no conclusive answers. Silverseren finds an online source and another editor, Lihaas, edits the reference in the article, concluding the collaborative turn and Ocaasi praises Silverseren for his find. This is an excellent example of the collaborative verification processes that were so successful in this article. Editors can be seen here to be working well together, helping to verify claims using individuals knowledge of unfolding events (The Egyptian Liberal), using
Wikipedia Sources: On the books and on the ground 2012 Heather Ford. Ushahidi 47
sophisticated search skills (Silverseren) and leadership qualities (Ocaasi) to ensure the quality of the article.
This conversation also provides evidence that the source cited in a Wikipedia article is not always the same as the source of that information. This phenomenon was verified in interviews, where editors stated that they found their information in what they believed was a more controversial source (Al Jazeerah, for example, was cited by many editors as unreliable on other pages) and instead found similar information in a better accepted source and used that as the citation reference. In the case of the 2011 Egyptian revolution article, editors were frequently obtaining their information from television sources and needed to find additional online sources (often released after the live television footage) to back up their claims using agreed-upon sourcing methods. On the one hand, finding additional sources to verify a single source can lead to more accurate curation, but on the other hand, the use of mainstream news sources can render the source of information opaque as readers try to verify claims made in an article.
48
Wikipedia Sources: On the books and on the ground 2012 Heather Ford. Ushahidi
It is important to note that multimedia sources such as photographs, cartoons and videos, as well as so-called social media sources require different methods of classification regarding whether they are primary or secondary or tertiary. Below are a few potential ways of
Wikipedia Sources: On the books and on the ground 2012 Heather Ford. Ushahidi 49
characterising new media sources, where a source may be seen as secondary when it is chosen by a traditional publisher or expert author, and where we assume such publishers have done the necessary checks to ensure that information is verified, at least where possible within a short news timeframe. Examples of how new media could be characterised in terms of Wikipedias sources principles Twitter Images Video Primary source Cartoon by Carlos Latuff from Amateur video footage of the 2004 Twitter/Twitpic Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami
Tweet by Sohaib Athar that became known as the first report of the deadly raid on Osama bin Laden
Secondary source
Photograph depicting people Amateur video footage of Japanese in the streets of Cairo tsunami on the New York Times carrying a poster of the Latuff website cartoon during protests
50
Wikipedia Sources: On the books and on the ground 2012 Heather Ford. Ushahidi
Elucidating references by exposing the workflow After developing a typology of sources and isolating different types of Wikipedia source work, I made two sets of design considerations as follows: 1. The first would be to for designers to experiment with exposing variables that are important for determining the relevance and reliability of individual sources including editors, as well as the reliability of the article as a whole. 2. The second would be to provide a trail of documentation by replicating the work process that editors follow (somewhat haphazardly at the moment) so that each source is provided with an independent space for exposition and verification, and so that editors can collect breaking news sources collectively.
Wikipedia Sources: On the books and on the ground 2012 Heather Ford. Ushahidi 51
1. Exposing variables Traditional encyclopedias (for example to the left) do not tend to focus on the source of the information they provide but Wikipedia has chosen to be different by compelling editors to provide citations for all information that could be questioned. The ultimate goal here is in line with the free and open source software principle of being able to look under the hood, to reverse-engineer a written work, a work of code or piece of hardware in order for an individual to recreate it for themselves or at least make up their own mind about a particular topic.
Figure 14 A page from a traditional encyclopedia (note the lack of citations). Ref: The Encyclopedia of Weather and Climate Change page spread sample from http://www.terrain.org/reviews/26/encyclopedia_of_weather.htm
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Wikipedia Sources: On the books and on the ground 2012 Heather Ford. Ushahidi
Figure 15 Screenshot from Wikipedia article on icebergs (note the references and external links) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iceberg
Traditional citation mechanisms dont work particularly well to achieve this goal. Links to online sources often change or are not archived (in the case of Twitter), citation standards do not accommodate newer types of information (blog posts by independent authors on well- known news sites, for example) nor do references expose the variety of variables that could be used by readers and editors to better understand where their information is coming from. Articles could, for example, provide user-friendly information showing where the majority of editors are editing from, how much experience they have, as well as which parts of the article were edited by the original author. Some work has been done on showing readers how often parts of an article have been edited and by how many editors, but although the number of edits may be one variable for readers to decide whether they trust content on Wikipedia, this single variable doesnt necessarily equate with trust (Adler et al., 2008). Innovative source visualisations could focus on features that go beyond what a user would expect from a page. For example, a visualization might show that an article about Zimbabwe is edited by a the majority of people from outside the country, or whether an original authors contributions survive longer and suffer fewer modifications than later contributions by other authors to the same page (along the line of research by Vigas, Wattenberg, & Dave, 2004). In so doing, readers and editors would be provided with tools to assess the reliability and relevance of sources and articles using a variety of lenses.
Wikipedia Sources: On the books and on the ground 2012 Heather Ford. Ushahidi 53
2.
Documenting
the
workflow
Editors
perform
tasks
of
discovering,
choosing,
verifying,
summarizing,
adding
information
and
editing
the
article
in
ways
that,
if
formalized,
can
work
to
provide
a
paper
trail
that
can
be
adapted
as
the
article
matures
and
grows.
Practices
that
editors
used
to
perform
the
following
actions
included:
a) b) c) d) e) f) storing discovered articles either using their own editor domains by putting relevant articles into categories or by alerting other editors to breaking news on the talk page, choosing sources by finding at least two independent sources that corroborated what was being reported but then removing some of the citations as the page became too heavy to load, verifying sources by finding sources to corroborate what was being reported, by checking what the summarized sources contained, and/or by waiting to see whether other sources corroborated what was being reported, summarizing by taking screenshots of videos and inserting captions (for multimedia) or by choosing the most important events of each day for a growing timeline (for text), adding text to the article by choosing how to reflect the source within the articles categories and providing citation information, and editing disputing the way that editors reflected information from various sources and replacing primary sources with secondary sources over time.
The majority of posts in the Talk pages studied related to editors posting a reference in order to achieve the following goals: a) alert others to breaking news and ask for comments on importance/relevance to the article; b) ask others to add the source to the article; c) ask for more sources to corroborate a source. Editors worked together to perform these micro-tasks, with some editors working primarily on collecting/verifying/citing sources. Since so much of a talk page is related to the tasks around sources, particular source workflow pages (separate to Talk pages) could be created where editors could focus activities around source work using a decision tree similar to the one below:
54
Wikipedia Sources: On the books and on the ground 2012 Heather Ford. Ushahidi
In this way, items can be entered into the workflow from discovery (solving the problem that some editors had to use their own talk pages to collect news items) through to citation in the article, with documentation tied to each source regarding the rationale for its inclusion or exclusion. On ranking By exposing source characteristics and by collecting usage information as editors move through the source workflow, we can replace the original ranking idea with something more practical and in keeping with principles of citizen-driven cooperative work like Wikipedia and Ushahidi. Editors and mapmakers are working to curate a meaningful collection of items by making important editorial judgements about the content that they receive, therefore it makes sense to use that data (location of source, corroborating sources, relevant categories of
Wikipedia Sources: On the books and on the ground 2012 Heather Ford. Ushahidi 55
the
article
where
it
might
fit
etc)
to
build
a
database
of
sources
and
their
context,
rather
than
implement
a
new
action
of
voting
up
or
down
when
it
is
unclear
what
editors
are
evaluating
in
their
votes,
and
when
this
is
an
extra
action
rather
than
based
on
actual
use.
56
Wikipedia Sources: On the books and on the ground 2012 Heather Ford. Ushahidi
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