Week4—— Reliability of Wikipedia source——ZHUANG MINNA

 1）Summary

As the world's largest online encyclopedia, Wikipedia has always faced controversy over whether it is "credible". It adopts an "editable by anyone" model, requiring all content to be based on reliable sources. Studies have found that in areas with strong objectivity such as natural sciences and history, Wikipedia's accuracy is actually comparable to that of professional encyclopedias. However, when it comes to controversial topics such as politics and culture, various deviations may occur.

2）Interesting Points

-The contradiction between openness and professionalism

The fact that anyone can edit makes the content update very timely, but it also leads to uneven quality. After all, there is no professional team to conduct systematic review.

-Limitations of citation rules

Although authoritative sources must be cited, this may make it difficult for some non-mainstream views to be presented.

-The homogeneity of the editing group

Data shows that more than 70% of active editors are European and American men, which directly affects the diversity of content. For example, the number of entries for female scientists is significantly smaller.

-Self-correction mechanism

Although malicious modifications are often made, a complete supervision mechanism can usually detect and fix problems within a few minutes.

3）Areas for discussion

-Can I directly quote Wikipedia when writing a paper?

It is recommended to use it as a reference only. For formal citations, you still need to find the original literature.

-How to solve the problem of content bias?

Perhaps it is necessary to attract more editors from different backgrounds to participate, but this is not easy to implement.

-New challenges in the AI ​​era

Now AI can generate fake content that looks professional in batches, which puts higher requirements on Wikipedia's review system.