Wikipedia has unwittingly given it back to hypocritical hacks. In public, journalists always pick the website apart as unreliable but, under the cover of their cubicles, fish in this cyber dump for easy information.
Just how much journalists rely on the web, instead of being out there in the field painstakingly reaping facts, was a thought that gave Shane Fitzgerald, 22, the idea of cracking a simple practical joke. Fitzgerald, a student of sociology and economics at Ireland’s premier University College Dublin, cooked up a quote and posted it to the Wikipedia entry on French composer Maurice Jarre (of Doctor Zhivago fame), shortly after his death in March. In the following days, the quote appeared in obituaries in the Guardian, the London Independent, in Indian and Australian newspapers, and on the BBC Music Magazine website.
“The world is connected through the web, and reporters are relying on this resource more than ever. I wanted to prove that this was indeed the case, and show the dangers that arise,” Fitzgerald said, after the hoax came to light. “‘One could say my life itself has been one long soundtrack’, I wrote into the Wiki entry. ‘Music was my life... and music is how I will be remembered long after I leave this life. When I die there will be a final waltz playing in my head and that only I can hear’.”
Fitzgerald was shocked by the result of his prank. “I didn’t expect it to go that far. I expected it to be in blogs and sites, but on mainstream quality papers?”
At least to his satisfaction, the hacks are eating humble pie.
