Does Wikipedia Work With Sports Media?

http://comm200fa11.wordpress.com/2011/10/21/is-wikipedia-worthy/

The process of Wikipedia is complex! Anyone with a computer and internet connection who can logically follow instructions is capable of adding contentto this ever-popular means of information gathering called Wikipedia. Jensen (2012) stated in his article, “one of the main complaints heard about Wikipedia is its lack of authority, because “anyone can edit”.” This proves to everyone that the information found on the website isn’t always reliable. A classmate of mine, Koudsi (2013) said in his post “it makes me wonder how come people recognize the fact that Wikipedia is not credible source of information and yet it is ranked one of the top ten sites in the world.” When looking at Wikipedia in relation to media in sports I notice that it is not always a reliable source of information. Even though the information is not always consistent, I have been using it as one of my sources of research for years.

Luciano (2013) stated, “The only use I had for Wikipedia was for answers to quick questions to prove facts on people, bands and TV shows.” This is very true for individuals in the sports media business. Wikipedia can be used to find out personal information about players in a league from life history to career statistics. Is Wikipedia my first option when I want to look at yearly and career stats for Points Per Game (PPG)? No, I would look at NBA.com to find out that information. Why? Because I prefer looking at the direct source that is constantly being updated and has been keeping track players history in the league for years, and update daily.

Often times to enhance the credibility of tidbits of information, I use the handy footnotes that are hopefully attached! Then I do an investigation! I click on the source that the information came from and voila, I have proof that what’s being said is probably valid. For example, the other day I was going through my basketball cards and noticed a card from a former NBA prospect named Eddie Griffin. I remember he passed away as a player, but I didn’t remember how. So I went to the handy Wikipedia for some information. The Wikipedia page said he died from a car accident. I wanted to know more so I clicked on the footnote attached. In my opinion, a footnote adds so much more credibility to what you see on Wikipedia.

Vince Carter (Toronto Raptors)
Hurt on the bench.
Courtesy of: 
http://hungryleafsfan.blogspot.ca/2009_11_01_archive.html

So, I randomly chose to pick an NBA player to search up and that player was ex Toronto Raptors star Vince Carter. He is the Toronto Raptors best player in franchise history and was a player know for his crazy dunks. Many people may say that he got Canadians more interested in become professional basketball players, and NBA superstar Kevin Durant has said that he grew up wanting to be like Vince Carter (Its good that he didn't because he is now the NBA's best young athlete). I looked on the “Talk” page on Wikipedia and found lots of bias, with very little credentials to credit the writing. For example, posters were discussing how Vince Carter played almost the whole season with an ankle injury, which caused him to play a whole season in pain. There is no proof to this, because there is no article stating that Vince Carter played a whole season in pain. No direct quotes from management, players, coaches or Vince Carter himself. So why would this be relevant to his Wikipedia page? As Royal & Kapila (2009) said “accuracy of information is important.” This is not accuracy and should not be posted onto Wikipedia! There requires a deep amount of knowledge about a subject in order to prove that information is valid.

Unlike social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook, you cannot get up-to-the minute information on Wikipedia. “The public opinion is always expanding and changing,” Ruffolo (2013) and With social media sites (such as those above) they update consistently with accurate information. Wikipedia takes time for these updates to happen because they don’t want to take a chance of it not being official. Although, Wikipedia is useful in getting this information it takes a them a couple of days to compute this into their system. As a Sport Management student, I would rather look at Twitter and Facebook for these updates because in sports you always want to be the first to know when you're favourite player is traded, signed, or even retires!!!

Overall, Wikipedia is a convenient and extremely handy research tool that individuals from High School students to sport management professors and media personnel can and should use as a starting point to further investigation into a phenomenon.

References:

C Ruffolo (2013, May 31). Wikipedia… Can it be trusted? [blog post]. Retrieved from http://newmediumnewmessage.wordpress.com

J Luciano. (2013, May 31). “You must use at least five sources, and Wikipedia connot be one of them …” [blog post]. Retrieved from http://jlucianoo.wordpress.com

Jensen, R. (2012). Military History on the Electronic Frontier: Wikipedia Fights the War of 1812. Journal of Military History. 76, 1. pp 1165-1182.

M Koudsi. (2013, May 31). The Source Wikipedia [blog post]. Retrieved from http://mediasuperpower.blogspot.ca/

Royal, C. & Kapila, D. (2009). What's on Wikipedia, and What's Not . . . ?: Assessing Completeness of Information. Social Science Computer Review. 27, 1. pp 138-148.