Collaborative Journalism Enters the Limelight
This cute little Reuters piece is one of the latest journalistic commentary on the death of journalism.
The Wikipedia, which has surged this year to become the most popular reference site on the Web, is fast overtaking several major news sites as the place where people swarm for context on breaking events.
Traffic to the multilingual network of sites has grown 154 percent over the past year, according to research firm Hitwise. At current growth rates, it is set to overtake The New York Times on the Web, the Drudge Report and other news sites.
Journalists seem to be exhorting their own demise with praise such as:
The business model of Wikipedia is a constant work in progress. Wikipedia Foundation, its Saint Petersburg, Florida-based parent organization, is a nonprofit that depends on donations and has no plans to accept advertising.
But by relying on the power of community, Wikipedia poses a stark contrast to the top-down editorial approach at Yahoo News or the computer-driven story selection of Google News, not to mention traditional media.
Despite all the praise that is heaped onto Wikipedia by the mainstream press, they leave out an important weakness. While it is awfully nice that everyone is a volunteer for a non-profit entity, they will never be able to achieve the investigative reporting that traditional outlets have. The New York Times may seem old and stodgy but they can pay journalists salaries that allow them to fly off to distant lands and do full-time research on a complicated topic. Without the resources to allow “wikipedians” to dedicate more time to the quality of their info, they are doomed to remaining a “light” reference.
The trackback URL for this entry is:
Trackbacks:
Comments:
Next entry: Buy! Buy! BUY!
Previous entry: Samsung to launch dual-standard DVD player
