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Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales Creates News Service "Wikitribune"

posted by takyon on Wednesday April 26 2017, @06:09PM   Printer-friendly
from the fake-news-anybody-can-edit dept.

Phoenix666 writes:

Wikipedia's co-founder Jimmy Wales is planning a news service that combines the work of professional journalists and volunteers.

His goal is for Wikitribune to offer "factual and neutral" articles that help combat the problem of "fake news".

The service is intended to be both ad-free and free-to-read, so will rely on supporters making regular donations.

One expert said it had the potential to become a trusted site, but suggested its influence might be limited.

Wikitribune shares many of the features already found in Mr Wales's online encyclopaedia, including the need for writers to detail the source of each fact and a reliance on the public to edit articles to keep them accurate.

However, while anybody can make changes to a page, they will only go live if a staff member or trusted community volunteer approves them.

The other big difference is that the core team of writers will be paid, although there may also be instances in which a volunteer writes the initial draft and then a staff member edits it.

Wikipedia has built a trustworthy reputation. Can it be transferred to journalism?

takyon: A SoylentNews expert asked, "Whatever happened to Wikinews?"

[Ed. Note: updated at 19:20 with more information]

More coverage: (compiled by butthurt)
Fortune
Daily Mail
Nieman Foundation
The Atlantic
The Guardian
Silicon UK
Press Association 2017 via Clydebank Post
AFP via The Peninsula

Original Submission #1 Original Submission #2

 
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 26 2017, @08:17PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 26 2017, @08:17PM (#500324)

    Every time I see a deleted wiki article I sigh and think to myself, I can't read about WTF because some wikipedia editor pulled down his pants and a girl laughed in his face, so somehow that gave him the right to delete this cool WTF article in his anguish.

    Only deleting articles does not make them feel manly enough anymore so they replace them with articles that deliberately malign the subject. They go out searching the partisan blogs for the most slanted language they can find that paints the subject in the most unflattering light, put that in the lede, and then they ban anyone who calls for neutral coverage. Then they ban anyone who asks why they are banning people for asking for Wikipedia to follow its own rules. WikiInAction [reddit.com] and Gamergate [8ch.net] have several examples.