[KS] Salon Article on Sino-Korean History War

[Matthew Benuska]

Here's the permanent link to the Salon Article. Thanks to the Marmot's Hole
(excerpt below).

 <http://www.salon.com/tech/htww/2007/03/14/history_wars/index.html>
http://www.salon.com/tech/htww/2007/03/14/history_wars/index.html


 


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The Great Goguryeo Wiki-War
<http://www.rjkoehler.com/2007/03/15/the-great-goguryeo-wiki-war/> 

March 15, 2007 - 10:43 am

Over at Salon, Andrew Leonard looks at the Sino-Korean
<http://www.salon.com/tech/htww/2007/03/14/history_wars/index.html> Wiki-War
over Goguryeo [Salon.com].  Be sure to read it in its entirety, but allow me
to reprint the money shot:

Critics of Wikipedia are wont to point a finger at amateur authorship as a
reason to distrust its veracity. Paradoxically, I find the lack of central
authority and profusion of multiple contradicting viewpoints to be a more
truthful reflection of "reality." So what if an examination of the inner
workings of Wikipedia makes its editorial process seem chaotic and causes
one to distrust the product? That's a good thing. All history should be
distrusted! It's equally easy to mock the Chinese and Korean academics who
are playing games with Northeast Asian history in service of their own
nationalism, but I say hurrah to them as well: They're just engaging in an
egregiously blatant display of what historians and reporters and bloggers
are doing everywhere, all the time. By allowing us to track editorial
changes, alter content ourselves, and participate in metalevel arguments,
Wikipedia gives us a window-seat view of how "knowledge" is fabricated. The
more context that is made available, the easier it is to make up our own
minds.

Talk amongst yourselves.

 
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