The Wikinewsie Group/Newsletter/2/Laura Hale:Why I love English Wikinews
|
The Wikinewsie Group Newsletter |
Key resources
|
- Why I love English Wikinews
by Laura Hale
For a while, I have wanted to write about the personal, emotional and professional satisfaction that I get from being a volunteer, contributor, reviewer, administrator and leader on English Wikinews. In many ways, the project has provided a similar framework, support group and professional opportunities that Fan History Wiki previously provided me. The two projects share many similarities, and many key differences... but the parts that explains where most of my satisfaction comes from in terms of both is similar: The major players involved all share a common goal for the community to work toward, and there are opportunities for advancement which many in the community will support you in attempting to achieve.
The purpose of English Wikinews is to publish news, with a special emphasis placed on publishing original reporting. The community has agree that published news needs to meet the following criteria: Copyright, Newsworthiness, Verifiability, NPOV and Style. The project is successful when a reporter and a reviewer can collaborate together to make sure the criteria are met, and an article is published. Community members prioritize these activities above others. Administrative activities are done that ultimately relate to these goals. A non-profit is working on being created by Wikinews contributors expressly to support these goals and the ideals that back them.
This is a supportive community of goal minded individuals who believe in quality journalism who collaboratively work towards that goal. Do we always get along? No. Can we be blunt and sometimes say hurtful things? Yes. But for myself, and I think for other core participants, there is the recognition that it is okay to not always get along, that if we are blunt to the point of pain and occasionally say hurtful things, it will be okay. We need to apologize when necessary (because we all make mistakes) and make sure we remained focused on that goal.
A shared goal that everyone agrees on, with a way of determining how that goal is met, is a good thing for us. If you do not share our goal, you will not fit into our community. It is not that we do not want you to participate, but rather that there is no role for you to fill. Administrators support our news functions: they block spammers, sockpuppets, copyright violators who are not there to get news published. Techies support our news functions: the build tools that make our job of publishing news easier. This can include everything from building reviewing tools to building bots to creating tools to understand our metrics. Researchers support our news functions: They provide us insights into our community, how it functions and how it can be improved. GLAM, Wiki Education Foundation, the Wikimedia Foundation board, Wikimania and others inside the Movement support our goals by providing us access to events, a framework for organizing, providing us with knowledge that can assist us in our news publishing task.
If you want to show up to cause trouble, there is very little wiggle room for you to do so: trouble can only be caused in the context of striving to meet project goals. Otherwise, you are easy to dismiss. The focus around a goal and working towards it is good for the community beyond making it easy to dismiss others. It helps because it does not create an Us versus Them viewpoint. Project wise, as we sit inside the Wikimedia Movement, there is no need to ostracize other projects to better our own standing. That is not what we are about. There is no power grab for most important. There is no competition to outperform Wikibooks, Wikiversity, Wiktionary or Wikipedia. Such competition is unhealthy and runs counter to our shared up goals. This lack of competition with other projects, this being able to focus inward on goals and healthy compete with others inside Wikinews towards the shared goals, it makes being involved with the project that much more fulfilling.
I cannot over emphasize enough how having a shared goal, a goal that everyone who is actively involved with the project needs to share, means to me. It provides a framework for collaboratively working together, for being willing to trust, for being willing to share, to know that despite our difference, we can work together. The lack of a shared goal, a shared purpose, or a goal that is only vaguely understood with no structure that requires a shared working together, I find demoralizing and harder to work with. It creates unhealthy competition, paranoia, creates a sense of Us versus Them. I like Wikinews because I do not have unhealthy competition, paranoia or an attitude of Us versus Them.
Another reason I like Wikinews is that there are opportunities for advancement which many in the community will support you in attempting to achieve. Most of the major contributors on English Wikinews have some special skill set, or are good at particular tasks. Brian McNeil is really good at doing some of the technology backend stuff with Wikinewsie.Org server. pi zero is very good at reviewing, very good at communicating and is working to create a tool to improve user efficiency. Gryllida is good at getting metrics, communicating with others, reviewing, doing science related interviews, and getting news stories published between Russia and English Wikinews. Computron is very good at doing interviews and getting English Wikinews articles translated to other languages. Bidgee is very good at doing sport and New South Wales related photography for news articles. tommorris is really good at getting LGBT stories published, covering WMF related news and explaining differences between English Wikipedia and English Wikinews. rockerball is good at covering Australian sports news. David Blackall is great because he introduces students to the project. There are a number of others who bring things to the table. Everyone brings something unique and different that pushes the project forward in working towards our shared goal.
And we can acknowledge that, not resent the other person for their specialized skill set, but assist them in maximizing that potential. (Though yeah, we can have moments of fail at this.) Once I established that I had a press pass and could attend the London Paralympics as a reporter for Wikinews, Brian assisted in creating/supporting tools to make remote reporting easier. The community discussed the copyright issues to avoid having publishing delays that would interfere with getting things published. People volunteered to be available specifically review articles published in this time period. This sort of support for my sport reporting work has been provided again and again. I have goals outside Wikinews that getting published helps advance. This includes travel, attending sporting events, getting a job, working in the sport industry. I can advance these goals because of my Wikinews work, and the community knows about these goals and supports me through my Wikinews work in meeting them.
And that part is important. Advancement in Wikinews is not just getting special privileges like becoming an administrator, a reviewer, autopatrolled, an accredited reporter, a member of ArbCom, a Check User or a Bureaucrat. They are not viewed as particularly important or high status. They are viewed as tools of great responsibility that allow everyone to work towards a goal.
Advancement thus means something else: It means an opportunity to do new things, to get access to events, to have your work published elsewhere, to see your name credited in a picture, to be asked by an organization to cover an event, to be asked to give a presentation, to have some one inside the WMF give you a WMF related shirt, to get contacts that can assist you with your goals. None of these opportunities would happen if you did not participate.
Advancement also means an opportunity to grow and assist others inside the Wikimedia movement. If you want it, then these doors begin to open up if you chose to pursue them. It means the potential for taking the skills you developed to get into a university by having a portfolio of work. It means the potential for advancement in work or getting a job by developing a community, creating a portfolio, travelling, dealing with people from other cultures, doing public relations and marketing, developing training materials, and copy editing. These are skills many employers find useful. Advancement can also mean an opportunity to advance the free sharing of information, of creating global awareness of ideas and things important to you. Reporters can and do change the world. Being involved with Wikinews offers a concrete way to influence thought and engage the world.
Being involved is not always easy. It requires work. Not everyone likes Wikinewsies as individuals. Not everyone agrees with our goals, nor how we have implemented our goals. Some people do view themselves as in competition with Wikinews. Our traffic at times can be a bit disheartening. But at the end of the day, the shared goals have created a community I feel I truly belong to and can positively contribute to. English Wikinews has also provided me with several opportunities to advance my personal and professional goals. I have had opportunities I would never had otherwise if I had not pushed to do what I did/do on the project. I feel like I have accomplished a great deal, and I get recognition from my peers for having done that. I love Wikinews.