Why Sources are Important
This is not something I’m clearing up for once, but bringing to the attention of my one or two readers as an example.
It actually shocked me to learn today how much mainstream sources rely on the internet — for the purposes of this article, Wikipedia is in the spotlight — for their research… and don’t note sources. (Or the lack thereof)
Truthiness
One could say my life itself has been one long soundtrack. Music was my life, music brought me to life, and music is how I will be remembered long after I leave this life. When I die there will be a final waltz playing in my head, that only I can hear. — Maurice Jarre
Truth
That was the opposite of true. The quote was edited into the late Jarre’s Wikipedia article by Shane Fitzgerald of Dublin. Not in ill faith, but as an experiment.
From the Irish Times:
The quote had no referenced sources and was therefore taken down by moderators of Wikipedia within minutes. However, Fitzgerald put it back a few more times until it was finally left up on the site for more than 24 hours.
While he was wary about the ethical implications of using someone’s death as a social experiment, he had carefully generated the quote so as not to distort or taint Jarre’s life, he said.
Fitzgerald was shocked by the result of his experiment.
“I didn’t expect it to go that far. I expected it to be in blogs and sites, but on mainstream quality papers? I was very surprised about,” he said.
However, the hoax remained undiscovered for weeks until Fitzgerald e-mailed offending newspapers to tell them that they had published an inaccurate quote.
“I don’t think it would have been found out unless I had told them so,” Fitzgerald said yesterday. In recent days the Guardian printed a correction and an article about the hoax.
Fitzgerald admits that he is not a sophisticated hacker or technology junkie. “I’m capable of using a computer but I’m not a whizz. Anyone can go in and edit anonymously,” he said.
The quote has since been relegated to a sub-section on mister Jarre’s Wikipedia entry, aptly titled ‘Wikipedia Hoax’, and has been removed and corrected in many cases. BBC Music Magazine is mentioned, for example. However, according to the Times the information remains intact on many websites and, somewhat less extraordinarily, blogs. (I am probably not free of blame)
The story is nothing if not a cautionary tale, highlighting the importance of checking the validity of statements, regardless of the source.
However
Don’t go wheeling off into a frenzy of paranoid source-checking yet. The reason I haven’t singled Wikipedia out is its relative accuracy (not much worse than Britannica) and the fact that the quote was removed multiple times before it stuck.
Wikipedia is a perfectly fine resource, just as long as you ensure the validity by checking citations within the articles themselves.
It should be noted that I have not contacted mister Fitzgerald myself, nor did I know of mister Jarre’s death. (Nor his existence) I have not relied on Wikipedia, but I have relied on sources in the media which have been shown as susceptible to mistakes based on unreliable sources. It can be hard to know what’s reliable and what’s not, and I have no good advice. I haven’t quite figured it out myself.
Sources (See?)
Student’s Wikipedia hoax … — The Irish Times The original article.
The Irish Times The journal itself. I felt sort of bad quoting such a large block of text without linking to their home page.
Ironically, Wikipedia I found the link to the original article through this entry.
ABC’s coverage I Stumbled Upon this article, which is what alerted me to the whole thing in the first place.
