WIKINEWS: ANOTHER TAKE

Yesterday, I pointed to a Simon Waldman post expressing doubt about Wikinews as a force for citizens journalism. Today John Burke at Editors Weblog has a dissenting view and a plea to give Wikinews a chance to prove itself.

But, in fact, the real debate is more philosophical on what is news in the blogosphere and in the wikisphere:

3) It is obvious that Wikinews is making bloggers uneasy. They are on opposite ends of the information spectrum. Basically, blogs are defined by individual immediacy of emotion, with no fact-checking and no editor; simply read and react. The comments that follow a blog certainly add to the flavor, but do so in a manner that perpetuates opinion, thus resulting in a fragmented block of information. Wikis, on the other hand, provide for “collective intelligence”, where the community fact-checks and corrects itself, and as Wales explained in the Editors Weblog last week, where “Every contributor can be an editor.” The goal is to provide “neutral information”, not biased personal opinion. This cooperative information gathering among a community results in one sole article, a combination of many writings into an integrated body.

He adds:

Wikinews presents the world with a new conception of information based on a noble principle that advances the cause of citizen journalism. We should be patient, allowing this principle time to take root and grow before suffocating it with criticism.

John has some great points and extends the debate quite nicely, while giving props to Simon for raising the issue. But I think he’s mistaken in seeing the citizens journalism movement as a choice between blogs and Wikinews. Both blogging and wikis — as technologies — have a role to play, along with podcasting, multimedia, the tools of traditional journalism and technologies that haven’t yet emerged.

One of the strengths of Wikipedia (and wikis in general) is the “group as editor” concept and the ability of a multitude of voices to work together to produce a coherent and, ultimately, accurate narrative. But the process takes time and its not particularly well-suited to dealing with what’s happening right at this moment.

I’m willing to be proven wrong on this. Another central source of news would be a great addition. But I don’t trust bloggers as my sole source for breaking news and I can’t see Wikinews as a single source, either. If we can find a way to combine the individual voices that you find in blogging, the collaborative powers of the wiki and the resources of a major newsgathering organization, then you have something.

(Simon’s original post is here; my first post on this here.)

TECHNORATI TAGS: CITIZEN JOURNALISM, WIKINEWS