The credibility of Wikipedia is a big question mark on the face of the prevalent information age, on the new media-the Internet. Wikipedia’s liberal feature where any one can tamper with their information bank, perhaps, have left the ‘Free Encyclopedia’ in a whimpering state.
A team of researchers in the US, led by Dr. Robert Hasty, Campbell University, observed that 9 out of 10 Health related information on Wikipedia, contains wrong or inaccurate content. The study was published in the current month’s Journal of the American Osteopathic Association.
“While Wikipedia is a convenient tool for conducting Research, from a public health standpoint patients should not use it as a primary resource because those articles do not go through the same peer-review process as medical journals,” says Dr. Robert Hasty warning all the readers those who educate themselves through Wikipedia.
Since the year 2001, the year when it was launched, Wikipedia has grown voraciously. Out of approximately 30 million articles of the information bank, approximately 20,000 articles provide information on health related subjects. The irony is that according to a recent research:
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approximately 50 per cent to 70 per cent of the medical practitioners, physicians and junior researchers educates themselves reading information on Wikipedia
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approximately 72 per cent of the Users over the Internet, who were looking for Health related information referred to Wikipedia
We all will agree with the fact that when it is about educating yourself on the myriad issues like Sex, Health, Nutrition and many more similar subjects, one needs to be very cautious. The information source must be very reliable.
Not only a common man read about symptoms and diagnosis of a disease on the ‘Internet Encyclopedia’ every now and then but so does many of the junior medical researchers and other students.
But. But. But. Can you even think about adding to your knowledge on Health, from an information bank that has an easy and open access to anyone in the world. For sure, possibilities are there that the information on such platform is being tampered with, every next minute.
Rather to look for the information on specific health problems like Heart Disease, Diabetes, Blood Pressure et cetera… et cetera… on Wikipedia, it is suggested to consult to your Doctor or to your Physician.
It won’t be an exaggeration to say that the Internet has scotched the creation of new information. In other words, the Internet no more allows the people to think out of their mind. Internet revolves the same information. Even its wrong, it is being carelessly spread to the readers worldwide.
And Wikipedia is perhaps the best example to such a blunder.
Wikipedia is published in approximately 285 different languages. Therefore, just imagine the harm that has already been done to the heterogeneous readers worldwide. It’s high time, we must understand the importance of making our brain beat like the heart.
There must be a ‘FULL STOP’ to all this modern information chain, before the coming generations remember this New Media-the Internet, for the plethora of wrong and inaccurate information.