Media Scholar Sounds Alarm About Wikipedia

The guardians of Wikipedia are locked in a battle over whether the online encyclopedia should be more selective in the articles it contains, according to a story last week in The Economist. The fight reportedly pits the “inclusionsists” against the “deletionists.” Andrew Lih, a Wikipedia administrator who helped start Columbia University’s new-media program, worries that the encyclopedia is in danger of becoming elitist, according to the article. Mr. Lih is identified as a deletionist turned inclusionist. He encouraged his former students to contribute to the site and is currently writing a book about Wikipedia.—-Andrea L. Foster