Book Review of "Wikipedia U: Knowledge, Authority and Liberal Education in the Digital Age"
Authors | Christine Wihak |
|---|---|
Publication date | 2016 |
Links | Original |
Book Review of "Wikipedia U: Knowledge, Authority and Liberal Education in the Digital Age" - scientific work related to Wikipedia quality published in 2016, written by Christine Wihak.
Overview
Leitch, Thomas (2014). Wikipedia U: Knowledge, Authority and Liberal Education in the Digital Age. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press. Pages: 176. Price: $29.95 US (hardcover/e-book).I was drawn to this book, as Author imagine many higher education teachers would be, because Author thought it would help me to make a more informed decision on the place of Wikipedia in the contemporary classroom. This readable little volume certainly fulfilled that particular curiosity. On that basis alone, it would be of interest to educators in most disciplines or fields, as well as to the educated layperson who wants to know to what extent Wikipedia can be trusted. For educators in disciplines closely associated with liberal education (notably the humanities and to a lesser extent, the social sciences), this book offers an engaging discussion of important questions of authority. While many scholars have explored the vast topic of authority in greater depth, the unique contribution of Leitch's book is how he uses an extended investigation of Wikipedia to raise and discuss these issues in a way that allows young students to make connections to their own experiences.In the Introduction, Leitch outlines sociological and philosophical understandings of authority and discusses how they are being challenged by the continually increasing availability of on-line resources. He characterizes authority within the academy as traditionally resting on printed books and journals, with open access, on-line information being viewed somewhat dubiously by many scholars. While this discussion is brief, it serves to set the stage for his more extended exploration of Wikipedia as a case study that illuminates what he sees as a contemporary crisis of authority within liberal education.Providing essential information on the origin of Wikipedia, Leitch frames his opening chapter Origin Stories as four different narratives: Wikipedia's own description of its origin; Wikipedia's evolution from generic wiki software originally intended to enhance on-line collaboration; the parallel evolution of Wikipedia, personal computing and the world-wide web; and the relationship between traditional encyclopedias such as Encyclopedia Britannica and Wikipedia. Although much of this information is likely to be famil- iar to many readers, Leitch's presentation of it in the form of narratives and his discussion of those narratives leaves the reader with a nuanced understanding of the development of the Wikipedia phenomenon.The next chapter, Paradoxes of Authority, is a seminal one in the unfolding of Leitch's critique of Wikipedia's credibility as an authoritative source. In it, he explores the inner workings of Wikipedia's editorial policy and the implications of three principles it uses to govern content. Although Wikipedia, according to Leitch, presents an image of a radical democracy, it does operate according to governance rules with regard to who can edit what and when. An internal hierarchy exists in Wikipedia, organized according to familiar bureaucratic principles. Thus Wikipedia's claim to consensual authority through "the voice of the people" is mitigated by the presence within the hierarchy of positions that have a higher level of editorial authority than an entry-level contributor. Leitch then investigates the paradoxes of authority implicit in Wikipedia's three Core Content Principles: Verifiability, Neutrality, and No Original Research. As the author explains, Wikipedia's Verifiability principle is not seeking to ensure that its published articles contain "truth," but only that the information comes from a reliable published source. Indeed, Leitch points out that Wikipedia displays a preference for academic and peer-reviewed publications, essentially deferring authority to the academy, rather than staking a claim as a new democratic, consensual authority. Leitch next takes issue with Wikipedia's Neutrality policy, arguing that writing neutrally is also a point of view. …
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Wikipedia Quality
Wihak, Christine. (2016). "[[Book Review of "Wikipedia U: Knowledge, Authority and Liberal Education in the Digital Age"]]". Canadian Society for the Study of Higher Education.
English Wikipedia
{{cite journal |last1=Wihak |first1=Christine |title=Book Review of "Wikipedia U: Knowledge, Authority and Liberal Education in the Digital Age" |date=2016 |url=https://wikipediaquality.com/wiki/Book_Review_of_"Wikipedia_U:_Knowledge,_Authority_and_Liberal_Education_in_the_Digital_Age" |journal=Canadian Society for the Study of Higher Education}}
HTML
Wihak, Christine. (2016). "<a href="https://wikipediaquality.com/wiki/Book_Review_of_"Wikipedia_U:_Knowledge,_Authority_and_Liberal_Education_in_the_Digital_Age"">Book Review of "Wikipedia U: Knowledge, Authority and Liberal Education in the Digital Age"</a>". Canadian Society for the Study of Higher Education.
