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My first Wikipedia article

Introduction
Like everyone else I used Wikipedia a lot, but this time I could experience the project from the other side by writing an own article. I edited a Wikipedia article about my father who is also a known artist in the south of Germany. On the one hand it met the course’s requirements as a social-scientific topic and on the other hand I had access to a lot of material, which I could use for the article. Moreover, the artist could improve his public relations and increase his value at the art market. Continue reading “My first Wikipedia article”

Comparison between the German and English Wikipedia article of “The Blair Witch Project”

1. Introduction
The Wikipedia articles are about an American horror film produced in 1999. In the movie there are three student filmmakers, who are trying to get some evidence of the mysterious Blair Witch. They plan a camping trip to the Black Hills, where they are filming the documentary movie. During the whole movie, the witch can not be seen, but a lot of mysterious things happen. The film ends with the camera being dropped. So it is an open end, where every viewer can imagine his or her own end. Now I am going to make a comparison between the German Wikipedia article and the English one. It is focused on the differences in content and form. Continue reading “Comparison between the German and English Wikipedia article of “The Blair Witch Project””

The Experience with and within Wikipedia

In this blog post, I am going to tell you my experiences with Wikipedia, which I made in the last three months due to my participation in the university course “Constructing Knowledge in the Digital Age: Wikipedia´s Contribution to the Humanities”.

My Article

I wrote a new Wikipedia article about Mary Rowlandson´s captivity narrative. Unfortunately, I had to write in German because the English article was already quite detailed. My article is therefore titled “Die wahre Geschichte der Gefangenschaft und Befreiung der Mrs. Mary Rowlandson“. Continue reading “The Experience with and within Wikipedia”

My First Wikipedia Article – “Behind the Scenes”

I’ve always used Wikipedia a lot (who doesn’t?) but I’ve never thought about writing my own article. However, I decided to attend a course called Constructing Knowledge in the Digital Age: Wikipedia’s Contribution to the Humanities this semester. Not knowing what this course would actually look like I considered it more innovative than the typical “Shakespeare classes” and I told myself: Try it! First of all I had to realize that I actually knew nothing about the encyclopedia that felt so familiar and furthermore the question if I’ll ever write an article for Wikipedia was answered for me: I will. Continue reading “My First Wikipedia Article – “Behind the Scenes””

Editing Wikipedia – What’s this all about?

“There’s enough editors for this, aren’t there?”

Wikipedia is a knowledge database maintained by its users, normal people like you and me. Not just researchers and scientists contribute to the never-ending catalogue of wisdom, everyone can, but not everyone does.

I’ll be the first to admit I stumbled into editing on Wikipedia by accident. What made me start doing it was a course at the University of Stuttgart, the course which this whole blog is structured by. I originally did not consider this course for myself, but due to another course being cancelled, I found myself attending nonetheless. It was a spontaneous decision, but not one I regret. Continue reading “Editing Wikipedia – What’s this all about?”

Writing about a Film on Wikipedia

Starting Point

When I began to write for Wikipedia, I enlarged an already existing article about a film which is called “La Passion”, released in 1982 and directed by Jean – Luc Godard. When I first had a look at the English version of the article, there was only a header, the subpoints ‘cast’, ‘see also’ and ‘external links’. They didn’t contain much information. All in all it was only possible to get to know the names of the actors who performed in the film and who was the director of it.

My Contribution to the Article

I started by writing a summary of the main plot and then turned to the second level of the film, the tableaux vivants, which are equally important. Continue reading “Writing about a Film on Wikipedia”