Week 5 - We're Almost There

General
1

Wikipedia Article

My group is editing the Stabbing of Adele Morales Wikipedia article. Editing the article as a group has been an interesting experience, but it definitely has plenty of challenges. My peers are doing a great job.

Limited Information/Content

There has been a lot of communication and great feedback on the edits each peer is making. It’s not easy to edit an article that is based on a one-night event as the information is limited and much of the information is based on witness accounts which could be biased. In one article, I noticed that Adele’s recollection of the situation was that he approached her and stabbed her with no words and that she was unsure of why she was stabbed. In another article, the witness recounted that Adele was taunting him and there was a history of abuse between both parties. Therefore, there is not a lot of room to expand the content without crossing lines, so figuring out what can be improved has taken some careful consideration.

Peer Feedback
One of the biggest challenges for me has been the feedback process. There are a lot of suggestions and edits flying around, which is great, but it can be cluttered. It’s hard to keep track of what’s been addressed.

Training

The course on adding images to Wikipedia was good. It’s understandable why Wikipedia is strict about copyrighted images. Carroll (2023) describes copyright as an intent to “promote the process of science and the arts”, thus protecting artists. Large publications like Wikipedia must help to protect artists. Unfortunately, I was not able to find an image for the Stabbing of Adele Morales article in Openverse. I’m hoping that I can find a few good pictures for my individual article.

Working on both a group article and an individual one has been helpful. It’s making me think more critically about how information is shared and who gets to contribute to knowledge around the world. Wikipedia seems simple on the surface, but once you’re inside the process, you realize how complex and community-driven it is.

Thoughtful Question - Does it Matter Who Writes in Wikipedia?

I believe it matters who writes on Wikipedia for multiple reasons. The writer should:

  1. Be able to write non-biased material
  2. Be able to write in a neutral tone
  3. Be able to research and find appropriate resources
  4. Be able to work alongside other writers and respect decisions and changes

Update on Remediation Project

I’ll be working the next few days on helping to remediate a second article. I just noticed the “Feedback on Remediation Project So Far" post. I was not aware we needed to contribute beyond our own article. This is going to be a heck of a few days.

Good luck all! May the odds be ever in your favor!

giphy

Carroll, B. (2023). Writing and editing for Digital Media. London: Routledge.

1 Like
2

Rachael, I’m working on Stabbing as well, and you are right that a lot of conflicting theories are floating around. Most of the ones I’ve seen, including her memoir, do admit to some taunting on her part. I worked on other parts of the article, not that part, but maybe it would be wise to say that accounts conflict. Accounts also differ about the size/condition of the knife used, from what I’ve seen.

Same! I looked too. I was hoping we could find one of them at the courthouse that is often published with stories of the incident, but so far, no luck.

3

I’m working on Stabbing as well but have gotten caught up in getting my remediation article fixed.