Tech | November 04, 2007 | 2 comments

Wikipedia: Fast Food for the Brain?

source: http://edition.cnn.com/2007/TECH/11/02/perils.wikipedia/index.html

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It's one of the top 10 most-visited sites worldwide, with over 2 million articles in its English language edition. This June, former president of the American Library Association, Michael Gorman hit out at academics who endorsed the use of Wikipedia to their students, saying in the Encyclopaedia Britannica blog that "a professor who encourages the use of Wikipedia is the intellectual equivalent of a dietician who recommends a steady diet of Big Macs with everything." What do you think: Is online encyclopedia Wikipedia's strength -- that anyone can edit it -- also its greatest weakness?
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2 comments // Wikipedia: Fast Food for the Brain?

  • meadowking06
    • 0
      meadowking06  

    • I don't understand the reason for any controversy regarding Wikipedia. It's an excellent starter source for information on ANYTHING. That's it's biggest advantage over any other encyclopedia—regardless of the topic, it's assumed that Wikipedia will have an article on it. Also, it's free!

      Is it always going to be the most accurate source? No. Who cares?—That's not what it is promising. If the credibility and quality of sources is important, the information in articles found on Wikipedia is cited. If not, then it's probably not credible Wikipedia alerts users with a banner stating that the article does not cite it's sources. If doing a research paper, don't cite Wikipedia as a source, but use the sources cited on Wikipedia articles as your source!

    • 4 years ago
  • weakmassive
    • 0
      weakmassive  

    • In the case of Wikipedia, the strengths of the wiki model far outweight the weaknesses. As with ANY information, it's advised to check it against multiple sources. Like the article said, "no encyclopedia will ever be perfect", Britannica included.

    • 4 years ago
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