As a Wikipedia auditor, with the responsibility of actually evaluating the references of the NETFLIX article, I was eager to search and find non-legitimate sources or poorly credited information as I knew Wikipedia is not the most legitimate, valid source to use. After reading the Netflix article over a few times, it was interesting, yet tough to determine in separating the strengths and weaknesses of the entry.
After the many presentations presented in class, it seems that the overall consensus of scholarly-ness of Wikipedia is that Wikipedia can be used to obtain shallow or the general/basic information of a topic, though going into details would not be the best way to learn information. As seen in some presentations like Hurricane Katrina and Non-medical Cannabis, there was a lucid difference in the strengths and weaknesses as references directed to unreliable websites and missing information. In my case, Netflix was rather hard to differentiate what was poor information because many references came from reliable technology sources, or the actual Netflix blog. On the whole, Netflix's strength is that a good portion of their information is accurate because the usage of Primary sources instead of Secondary. Two-thirds of the references would be considered "scholarly" and the last 1/3 of the sources was information that could of been cited by a Primary source (i.e., the same exact info could of been found on the Netflix website or blog). On the other hand, the only weakness of the entry is that some minor information references were missing, or the reference link did not exist any more. All in all, the Netflix Wikipedia entry, or any Wiki entry is not scholarly. In my opinion, no Wiki article is scholarly, unless everything is cited from a Primary source. By using Wikipedia, information is relatively bias, has missing information/missing citations, therefore, is not a source to learn all aspects of a topic.
Based on the strengths and weaknesses of each topic presented in class, a lot can be determined on how technology has a huge impact on American culture. It was interesting to see how Wikipedia has made information so easily accessible, and that every web user has believed this information is valid and reliable. The strengths have revealed very few things about American culture compared to the weaknesses. For example, in the Netflix entry, a large portion of it was bias for a reason. Because the American culture is about big business, making money and monopolizing industries, it seemed as if the editors and contributors to the entry were leaning in favor of Netflix when it came to sections about competition and legal issues they were involved in. This strength tells us that technology, including unreliable sources like Wikipedia are a great channel for advertising because technology users are looking for the quickest information no matter the validity, which is the weakness of American culture. Weaknesses disclose that the American culture is a culture relying on the easiest and quickest information possible. The evolvement of technology has led us to depend on information that comes through the web, not knowing that a lot of this information can be false. Technology has simplified processes into the fewest steps that we have begun to want information the fastest way we can, sometimes only getting to know the superficial information of a subject. Unfortunately, technology continues to grow, and Wikipedia is just the beginning of how American culture is changing.
From this project, I learned a more in depth perspective on Wikipedia and how American culture is deeply effected by technology, for the good and bad. Wikipedia can be seen as a great development within technology because of its storage of information and how it can be used as a learning tool to an extent. Essentially, technology is freedom. Therefore, freedom within Wikipedia allows anyone to edit, and post anything without the support of reliable sources onto the website. From this project, I'll be using some extra caution with Wikipedia, but I will also notice the changes that technology is causing year by year.
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