Is Wikipedia Credible And A Good Source To Obtain Information?

Student’s Name Instructor Class Date Is Wikipedia Credible? The present world is literally being defined by information, no wonder the term “Information Age.” It is correct to say that information is power. It enlightens and prompts people to do a lot by using it in various supportive ways. Information has revolutionized many aspects of lives and played a big role in modern globalization. One of the underlying contributors of information is Wikipedia. Although Wikipedia provides good, concrete background information, its information has accuracy, validity, and credibility issues and should not be cited. Scholars, researchers, and other users of information can only use Wikipedia entries as a general forefront of groundwork web research for their topics. Wikipedia offers us information in on tidbits. Wikipedia information provides general knowledge on general subjects that such information needs verification from credible sources such as historical topics. This explains why Wikipedia is sometimes considered as a crucial site and source of information by many. However, teachers need to teach students to have critical insights into the credibility and reliability of the information they obtain from Wikipedia. That is the only way to find out if Wikipedia information can be used in an educational process. Wikipedia is only strong on self-assessment. This makes the issue of credibility a personal perspective. Editors address the accuracy of the entries by compiling different results from international assessments of third-parties across different disciplines. This means that Wikipedia is as accurate as other encyclopedias such as Britannica and Europeana. However, Wikipedia is a contribution of views from various sources that are authorized by the site. In other terms, Wikipedia is mainly made up of opinions of independent authors. Nonetheless, it is subject to personal bias. Therefore, this places a lot of doubts on the credibility of Wikipedia as a reliable and dependable source of valid information. The information on Wikipedia can be edited or altered by virtually anyone that accesses it. It is worth noting that people have different motives and can, therefore, alter something to influence the larger population about a certain issue or topic. For instance, information regarding personalities such footballers’ profiles can be edited by fans when under influence of emotions or by malice. For example, in 2018, French-Angolan striker, Barkley Panzo amended his Wikipedia page to include ludicrously made-up career statistics and ended up getting recruited by a Lithuanian club, FK Panevėžys whose scouting team relied on the same information. It is, therefore, a compromise to the accuracy and validity of information....