The debate continues about the merits of Wikipedia in an academic context.
In his recent article Wikipedia and the New Curriculum, David Parry provides an argument in favour of embracing Wikipedia as the marquee example of a new form of 'informational format'. These formats are characterised by being participative and the knowledge in them is the result of collaborative authorship.
Far from discouraging access to these new media formats Parry argues that universities need to be teaching students to understand how these formats work and training them to participate in the debates through which knowledge is now being created.
Parry rightly points out that, unlike a traditional print encyclopedia, information sources like Wikipedia reveal the process of their creation (through the discussion and history pages that accompany an article). This transparency is entirely consistent with the process of academic scholarship in which the demonstration of the way knowledge is created is vital for the credibility of the research.
To get a sense of the polarising and polarised nature of the Wikipedia debate follow the comments thread at the end of the article.
(David Parry is an assistant professor of Emerging Media and Communications at the University of Texas at Dallas).
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