Wiki Hoax

[strangeirish]

Nice one...

'DUBLIN -
When Dublin university student Shane Fitzgerald posted a poetic but phony quote on Wikipedia, he said he was testing how our globalized, increasingly Internet-dependent media was upholding accuracy and accountability in an age of instant news.

His report card: Wikipedia passed. Journalism flunked.

The sociology major's made-up quote — which he added to the Wikipedia page of Maurice Jarre hours after the French composer's death March 28 — flew straight on to dozens of U.S. blogs and newspaper Web sites in Britain, Australia and India.

They used the fabricated material, Fitzgerald said, even though administrators at the free online encyclopedia quickly caught the quote's lack of attribution and removed it, but not quickly enough to keep some journalists from cutting and pasting it first.'


More (http://tech.yahoo.com/news/ap/20090512/ap_on_hi_te/eu_ireland_wikipedia_hoaxer)

[Bald Student]

Fair dues to him.

Whatever about journo's getting found out taking short cuts, I'm more worried by this falla, who apparently teaches in UCD. He's of the mind that it's unfair to point out these low standards.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/global/article6256860.ece

A flavour of the article:

As a lecturer at UCD, I am not impressed by a research project that consists of deceiving the media. Now that Fitzgerald has discovered that journalists do not always check facts properly, what other breakthroughs can we expect from his cutting-edge research? I look forward to reading his papers on “estate agent uses misleading terms to describe house” and “car salesperson utters mild exaggeration about previous owner of car”.

The news cycle is so quick that it is unfair to blame journalists for occasionally placing more faith in the internet than is prudent.

[pineapple stu]

who apparently teaches in UCD.
It's probably UCD Davis. It's hard to tell without the extra D though.

Also, I really hope that it's our ex winger Shane Fitzgerald who did this. :)

[pete]

This thread shoudl be marked: Attn The Irish Star

:p

[Lionel Ritchie]

This country is truly screwed if third level lecturers are re-enforcing the errant views commonly held by students that copy and paste, from whatever source, constitutes legitimate research.

[Bald Student]

This country is truly screwed if third level lecturers are re-enforcing the errant views commonly held by students that copy and paste, from whatever source, constitutes legitimate research.
The thing is, that view isn't commonly held by students. Most students will copy from their classmates or somewhere else during their time in college but they know when they're doing it that it's not right and they generally take precautions to avoid getting found out. That's entirely different from thinking it's OK to copy work, as this fella is arguing.

[Mr Maroon]

When Wes Charles joined Vancouver Whitecaps I read an article on some Canadian website that was practically just cut and pasted from the Wikipedia of Wes, that I had written almost all of.

[Magicme]

I have tried to edit our page on it but my edits were removed so the rumour that Mick Cooke was sacked after the Waterford game and that we are without a manager is true according to wiki.

[Lionel Ritchie]

The thing is, that view isn't commonly held by students. I can tell you assuredly that it is. The view is there that googling something and creating a verbal collage from the results constitutes not just research but should satisfy the examining bodies as well ...regardless of the source of the research presented and it's credibility, whether it's peer reviewed or whatever. The uninterupted expanses of blank A4 I come across, increasingly I'll add, on the Bibliography/refs pages only serves to confirm it.


Most students will copy from their classmates or somewhere else during their time in college but they know when they're doing it that it's not right and they generally take precautions to avoid getting found out. That's entirely different from thinking it's OK to copy work, as this fella is arguing. Syndication ...it's probably all over the shop and probably no worse here than anywhere else in the world. But the attitude to it would scare me off if I was thinking of opening for example the type of R&D facility that we're told is a big chunk of the future of the Irish "knowledge based" economy.