Harvard University's Nieman Journalism Lab has reported that Google News is using Wikipedia pages as sources of mainstream online news in its results. Neiman Lab's post and The Guardian's follow-up on this issue are both worth reading.
A recurring question from PR managers in organisations is: "should our department be managing our own Wikipedia page?" Both Wikipedia and the Chartered Institute of PR publish guidelines on the right way to do this. But never before has Wikipedia content strictly been classes as news coverage by any PR manager I've met. Perhaps Nieman Lab's discovery will change this.
How will the future of news look, when you can write your own reviews, feedback and headlines? And when anyone can then press delete, re-write or tarnish? It's the beginning of the end of fire-and-forget news.
[pic courtesy of Nieman Lab]
I used to do in-house PR and found managing Wikipedia entries a lot of work. For me it was around brand protection, but it became a real chore as there were multiple/sub brands to manage too ie not just the company name but also the product portfolio. Lots of names connected to your main brands can be on Wikipedia.
Posted by: Scott Sinclair | June 19, 2009 at 02:21 PM