Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

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

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

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 3, Informative) by NotSanguine on Thursday April 27 2017, @04:20AM

    The definition of "Fake" is pretty clear:

    The best definition I've heard for "Fake News" was by Tom Nichols [wikipedia.org]. In a presentation at The Heritage Foundation to discuss his book [c-span.org], The Death of Expertise [wikipedia.org].

    He says (starting around 01:27:00) [c-span.org]:

    Fake news is a lie deliberately concocted from whole cloth, seeded out into the media-sphere through the Internet or the other willing minions out there, to pollute the public debate. Intentionally, knowingly a lie. it is not a bias story, It is not an erroneous story, It is not an error that can be retracted. It is not a story that was spun in a way you happen to not like. None of that is fake news. Fake news is an intentional lie, created to mislead people and then placed out into the information sphere so that you will find it.

    The entire presentation is actually quite good. I haven't yet gotten his book, but I think it will be among the next few I read.

    tl;dr (Nichols has some choice things to say about "tl;dr" too!): Fake news is an intentional lie. Full Stop.

    --
    No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +1  
       Informative=1, Total=1
    Extra 'Informative' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   3