Meta-wiki, or, the genius of Stephen Colbert.
Colbert often reflects on the tenuous reality he believes (or "believes") is created by wikipeida entries. The entry on Wikipedia regarding wikis as seen on The Colbert Report is so meta that I just had to post that section in full in my wiki post.
"Wikiality featured as "The Wørd" on July 31, 2006.
Colbert has made repeated references on the show to Wikipedia, which he refers to as his "favorite website", generally in "The Wørd" segment. Colbert's first reference to Wikipedia was on the July 31, 2006 broadcast, when "The Wørd" was wikiality, defined as the concept that "together we can create a reality that we all agree on — the reality we just agreed on."[95] He explained that on Wikipedia "any user can change any entry, and if enough users agree with them, it becomes true."
Other "Wørds" invented relating to Wikipedia include "Wikilobbying", defined as "when money determines Wikipedia entries, reality has become a commodity", alluding to a case in which Microsoft allegedly hired someone to tamper with Wikipedia,[96] and "Self-determination", where corporations are allowed to act out their fantasies online by editing their own Wikipedia entries. Colbert described Wikipedia as, "Second Life for corporations", saying if a corporation wants to pretend to be someone else online, then that is their business.[97]
On May 24, 2007, the guest was Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia. Stephen Colbert called Wikipedia a "battlefield for information", a tool which "brings democracy to information" and moves away from the views of the "elite who study things and got to say what is or is not real." During the interview, Colbert showed a sentence on the screen: "Librarians are hiding something", which Wales could not see, with the implication that Wales could not stop a critical mass of individuals from editing a page according to the dictates of one influential individual. Wales responded that "the interesting thing about it [The Colbert Report] is that Wikipedians watch it."[98]
Colbert has made repeated references on the show to Wikipedia, which he refers to as his "favorite website", generally in "The Wørd" segment. Colbert's first reference to Wikipedia was on the July 31, 2006 broadcast, when "The Wørd" was wikiality, defined as the concept that "together we can create a reality that we all agree on — the reality we just agreed on."[95] He explained that on Wikipedia "any user can change any entry, and if enough users agree with them, it becomes true."
Other "Wørds" invented relating to Wikipedia include "Wikilobbying", defined as "when money determines Wikipedia entries, reality has become a commodity", alluding to a case in which Microsoft allegedly hired someone to tamper with Wikipedia,[96] and "Self-determination", where corporations are allowed to act out their fantasies online by editing their own Wikipedia entries. Colbert described Wikipedia as, "Second Life for corporations", saying if a corporation wants to pretend to be someone else online, then that is their business.[97]
On May 24, 2007, the guest was Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia. Stephen Colbert called Wikipedia a "battlefield for information", a tool which "brings democracy to information" and moves away from the views of the "elite who study things and got to say what is or is not real." During the interview, Colbert showed a sentence on the screen: "Librarians are hiding something", which Wales could not see, with the implication that Wales could not stop a critical mass of individuals from editing a page according to the dictates of one influential individual. Wales responded that "the interesting thing about it [The Colbert Report] is that Wikipedians watch it."[98]
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
0 comments:
Post a Comment