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{{Distinguish|The Signpost}}{{Short description|Free-content news wiki; project of the Wikimedia Foundation}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2019}}
{{Infobox website
| name = Wikinews
| logo = [[File:WikiNews-Logo-en.svg|120px|The current Wikinews logo]]
| screenshot = [[File:Wikinews screenshot.png|border|240px|Detail of the Wikinews multilingual portal main page]]
| caption = Screenshot of [https://www.wikinews.org/ wikinews.org]
| collapsible = yes
| url = {{Official URL}}
| commercial = No
| type = News wiki
| registration = Optional
| language = [[Multilingual]] ({{NUMBEROF|active|wikinews}} active)<ref name="Sitematrix" />
| owner = [[Wikimedia Foundation]]
| author = [[Wikimedia community]]
| location = [[Miami, Florida|Miami]], [[Florida]]
| launch_date = {{Start date and age|2004|11|8}}
| content_licence = CC-BY
| logocaption = The current Wikinews logo
}}

'''Wikinews''' is a [[free-content]] [[news]] [[wiki]] and a [[Wikimedia project|project]] of the [[Wikimedia Foundation]]. The site works through [[collaborative journalism]]. Wikipedia co-founder [[Jimmy Wales]] has distinguished Wikinews from [[Wikipedia]] by saying "on Wikinews, each story is to be written as a news story as opposed to an encyclopedia article."<ref>{{cite news | author = Joanna Glasner | title = Wikipedia Creators Move Into News | url = https://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2004/11/65819 | publisher = [[Wired (website)|Wired]] | date = November 29, 2004 | access-date = April 21, 2007 | url-status = live | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070607071611/http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2004/11/65819 | archive-date = June 7, 2007 }}</ref> The [[Objectivity (journalism)|neutral point of view]] policy that Wikinews claims to have, has an aim to distinguish it from other [[citizen journalism]] efforts such as [[Indymedia]] and [[OhmyNews]].<ref name="newyorktimes1">{{cite news | author = Aaron Weiss | title = The Unassociated Press | url = https://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/10/technology/circuits/the-unassociated-press.html | work = [[The New York Times]] | date = February 10, 2005 | access-date = July 26, 2021 | url-status = live | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090415232051/http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/10/technology/circuits/10wiki.html?ex=1177300800&en=024e251d2c696137&ei=5070 | archive-date = April 15, 2009 }}</ref> In contrast to most projects of the Wikimedia Foundation, Wikinews allows original work under the form of original reporting and interviews.<ref name="OR">[[n:Wikinews:Original reporting|Wikinews:Original reporting]].</ref>

As of {{CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{CURRENTYEAR}}, there are Wikinews sites active for {{NUMBEROF|active|wikinews}} languages<ref name="Sitematrix">[[Wikimedia]]'s [[MediaWiki]] [[:mw:API:Sitematrix|API:Sitematrix]]. Retrieved {{CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{CURRENTYEAR}} from [[:c:Data:Wikipedia_statistics/meta.tab|Data:Wikipedia statistics/meta.tab]]</ref> comprising a total of {{NUMBEROF|articles|totalactive.wikinews|N}} articles and {{NUMBEROF|activeusers|totalactive.wikinews|N}} recently active editors.<ref name="Siteinfo">[[Wikimedia]]'s [[MediaWiki]] [[:mw:API:Siteinfo|API:Siteinfo]]. Retrieved {{CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{CURRENTYEAR}} from [[:c:Data:Wikipedia_statistics/data.tab|Data:Wikipedia statistics/data.tab]]</ref> Wikinews editors are known as ''wikinewsies.''

== Early years==
[[File:Wikinews logo.svg|thumb|left|200px|The beta version logo, used until February 13, 2005]]

The first recorded proposal of a Wikimedia news site was a two-line [[anonymous post]] on January 5, 2003, on [[Wikipedia]] community's [[Meta-Wiki]].<ref name=eloquence>Erik Möller: [https://en.wikinews.org/wiki/User:Eloquence/History The history of Wikinews and my role in it] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121015221058/http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/User:Eloquence/History |date=October 15, 2012 }} Wikinews.org, accessed July 2, 2010</ref><ref>[http://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Wikinews/Archive&oldid=4306 Archived log entry of the anonymous post] on Meta-Wiki.</ref> Daniel Alston, who edited Wikipedia as Fonzy,<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Fonzy&diff=prev&oldid=1315899 Archived log entry of the userpage of User:Fonzy] on the English Wikipedia, which states his real name.</ref> claimed to have been the one who posted it.<ref name=eloquence/><ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikinews&diff=prev&oldid=27867383 Log entry of User:Fonzy editing this article] on the English Wikipedia.</ref> The proposal was then further developed by German freelance journalist, software developer, and author [[Erik Möller]].<ref name=eloquence/> Early opposition from long-time Wikipedia contributors, many of them pointing out the existence of Wikipedia's own news summaries, gave way to detailed discussions and proposals about how it could be implemented as a new project of the [[Wikimedia Foundation]].

In November 2004, a [[technology demo|demonstration]] wiki was established to show how such a [[collaborative]] [[news site]] might work. A month later, in December 2004, the site was moved out of the "demo" stage and into the [[beta version|beta]] stage. A [[German language]] edition was launched at the same time. Soon editions in [[Italian language|Italian]], [[Dutch language|Dutch]], [[French language|French]], [[Spanish language|Spanish]], [[Swedish language|Swedish]], [[Bulgarian language|Bulgarian]], [[Polish language|Polish]], [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]], [[Romanian language|Romanian]], [[Ukrainian language|Ukrainian]], [[Serbian language|Serbian]], [[Japanese language|Japanese]], [[Russian language|Russian]], [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]], [[Arabic language|Arabic]], [[Thai language|Thai]], [[Norwegian language|Norwegian]], [[Chinese language|Chinese]], [[Turkish language|Turkish]], [[Korean language|Korean]], [[Hungarian language|Hungarian]], [[Greek language|Greek]], [[Esperanto]], [[Czech language|Czech]], [[Albanian language|Albanian]], and [[Tamil language|Tamil]] (in that chronological order) were set up.
{{Wikinewspar|English Wikinews publishes 10000th article}}
On March 13, 2005, the English edition of Wikinews reached 1,000 news articles. A few months later in September 2005, the project moved to the [[Creative Commons]] Attribution 2.5 license.<ref>[https://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Wikinews_switches_to_Creative_Commons_license Wikinews switches to Creative Commons license] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130512065124/http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Wikinews_switches_to_Creative_Commons_license |date=May 12, 2013 }}</ref> It reached 5,000 articles on April 29, 2006, and 10,000 on September 5, 2007.

== Interviews ==
[[File:David Shankbone and Shimon Peres.jpg|right|thumb|Wikinews reporter David Shankbone with Israeli president [[Shimon Peres]] in 2007]]

Wikinews reporters have conducted interviews with several [[Notability in the English Wikipedia|notable]] people, including an interview in December 2007 with [[Israeli President]] [[Shimon Peres]] by Wikinews reporter [[David Shankbone]]. Shankbone had been invited to conduct the interview by the [[America-Israel Friendship League]] and the Israeli foreign ministry.<ref name="biginterview">{{cite news |url=http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=205604529 |title= Wikinews Gets Big Interview: Israeli President Shimon Peres |author= K.C. Jones |newspaper=[[Information Week]] |date= January 14, 2008}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |first=Adam |last=Rose |date=January–February 2009 |url=https://www.cjr.org/on_the_job/the_wikinews_ace.php |title=The Wikinews Ace: Why Shimon Peres sat down with David Shankbone |publisher=[[Columbia Journalism Review]] |access-date=May 11, 2012 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120509193458/https://www.cjr.org/on_the_job/the_wikinews_ace.php |archive-date=May 9, 2012 }}</ref>

Other notable interviews have included writers, actors, and politicians, such as [[Augusten Burroughs]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.brooklynrail.org/2008/04/books/david-shankbone-with-colleen-asper |title=David Shankbone with Colleen Asper |first=Colleen |last=Asper |publisher=[[The Brooklyn Rail]] |date=April 2008 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080423072155/http://www.brooklynrail.org/2008/04/books/david-shankbone-with-colleen-asper |archive-date=April 23, 2008 }}</ref> several [[Republican Party presidential candidates, 2008|2008 U.S. Republican Party nomination hopefuls]] as well as various U.S. [[Independent politician|independent]] and [[Third party (United States)|third party]] [[President of the United States|presidential]] candidates, [[Tony Benn]], [[Eric Bogosian]], [[Nick Smith (New Zealand politician)|Nick Smith]], [[John Key]], and World Wide Web co-inventor [[Robert Cailliau]].<ref name="biginterview" />

== Criticism ==
Wikinews has been criticized for its perceived inability to be neutral {{weasel-inline|text=or include only verified and true information|date=December 2020}}. [[Robert McHenry]], former editor-in-chief of the ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]'', criticized the credibility of the project:

{{quote|Above all, the central question about the Wikinews effort is its credibility. Making a newspaper is hard...Someone who wants to do it but doesn't really know how hasn't solved the problem by gathering a lot of other people who don't know, either.<ref name="newyorktimes1"/>}}

McHenry was skeptical about Wikinews' ability to provide a neutral point of view and its claim to be evenhanded: "The naïveté is stunning."<ref name="newyorktimes1" />

In a 2007 interview that gave to Wikinews, [[Sue Gardner]], at that time a special adviser to the board of the Wikimedia Foundation and former head of the [[Canadian Broadcasting Corporation]]'s Internet division, [[CBC.ca]], dismissed McHenry's comment, stating:

{{quote|Journalism is not a profession ... at its heart, it's just a craft. And that means that it can be practiced by anyone who is sensible and intelligent and thoughtful and curious ... I go back to the morning of [[Virginia Tech massacre|Virginia Tech]] – the morning I decided I wanted to work [at the Wikimedia Foundation]. The conversation on the talk page that day was extremely thoughtful. I remember thinking to myself that if my own newsroom had been having a conversation that intelligent (I was offsite that day) I would have been delighted. So yes, [in my opinion] you absolutely have proved Robert McHenry wrong. And you will continue to.<ref>"[[n:Interview with Sue Gardner of the Wikimedia Foundation|Interview with Sue Gardner of the Wikimedia Foundation]]", Wikinews; October 24, 2007.</ref>}}

Wikinews has also had issues with maintaining a separate identity from Wikipedia, which also covers major news events in real-time. Columnist [[Jonathan Dee]] of ''[[The New York Times]]'' pointed out in 2007 that "So indistinct has the line between past and present become that Wikipedia has inadvertently all but strangled one of its sister projects, the three-year-old Wikinews... [Wikinews] has sunk into a kind of torpor; lately it generates just 8 to 10 articles a day... On bigger stories there's just no point in competing with the ruthless purview of the encyclopedia."<ref>{{cite news |first=Jonathan |last=Dee |title=All the News That's Fit to Print Out |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/01/magazine/01WIKIPEDIA-t.html |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=July 1, 2007 |access-date=December 31, 2007 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110322092520/http://www.nytimes.com//2007//07//01//magazine//01WIKIPEDIA-t.html |archive-date=March 22, 2011 }}</ref> [[Andrew Lih]] and Zachary M. Seward commented on the continuing issue in a 2010 piece in the [[Nieman Foundation for Journalism|Nieman Journalism Lab]], "Why Wikipedia beats Wikinews as a collaborative journalism project." Lih wrote "it's not clear that the [[wiki]] process really gears itself towards deadlines and group narrative writing" and that "if you're trying to write something approaching a feature piece, it's much harder to get more than two or three people to stay consistent with the style."<ref name="lih">{{cite web |url=http://www.niemanlab.org/2010/02/why-wikipedia-beats-wikinews-as-a-collaborative-journalism-project/ |title=Why Wikipedia beats Wikinews as a collaborative journalism project |last=Seward |first=Zachary M. |date=February 8, 2010 |work=[[Nieman Journalism Lab]] |publisher=[[Nieman Foundation for Journalism]] |access-date=January 22, 2015 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150107121240/http://www.niemanlab.org/2010/02/why-wikipedia-beats-wikinews-as-a-collaborative-journalism-project/ |archive-date=January 7, 2015 }}</ref> Lih considers Wikipedia's stricter "formula" for article composition an advantage in a large wiki with many editors.<ref name="lih" />

According to Wikipedia itself, "Most editors believe that Wikinews articles do not meet Wikipedia's [[wikipedia:V|verifiability standards]]. As Wikinews does not enforce a strong editorial policy, many editors consider the site equivalent to a [[wikipedia:SPS|self-published source]], which is generally unreliable."[https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Reliable_sources/Perennial_sources&oldid=1053762385]

== Language editions ==
As of {{CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{CURRENTYEAR}}, there are Wikinews sites for {{NUMBEROF|languages|wikinews}} languages of which {{NUMBEROF|active|wikinews}} are active and {{NUMBEROF|closed|wikinews}} are closed.<ref name="Sitematrix" /> The active sites have {{NUMBEROF|articles|totalactive.wikinews|N}} articles and the closed sites have {{NUMBEROF|articles|totalclosed.wikinews|N}} articles.<ref name="Siteinfo" /> There are {{NUMBEROF|users|totalactive.wikinews|N}} registered users of which {{NUMBEROF|activeusers|totalactive.wikinews|N}} are recently active.<ref name="Siteinfo" />

The top ten Wikinews language projects by mainspace article count:<ref name="Siteinfo" />
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
!№!!Language!!Wiki!!Good!!Total!!Edits!!Admins!!Users!!Active users!!Files
{{for nowiki|
|<nowiki>
|- style="text-align: right;"
| {{{i}}}
| {{Mw lang|{{Wikipedia rank by size|{{{i}}}|wikinews}}}}
| [[:n:{{Wikipedia rank by size|{{{i}}}|wikinews}}:|{{Wikipedia rank by size|{{{i}}}|wikinews}}]]
| {{NUMBEROF|articles|{{Wikipedia rank by size|{{{i}}}|wikinews}}.wikinews|N}}
| {{NUMBEROF|pages|{{Wikipedia rank by size|{{{i}}}|wikinews}}.wikinews|N}}
| {{NUMBEROF|edits|{{Wikipedia rank by size|{{{i}}}|wikinews}}.wikinews|N}}
| {{NUMBEROF|admins|{{Wikipedia rank by size|{{{i}}}|wikinews}}.wikinews|N}}
| {{NUMBEROF|users|{{Wikipedia rank by size|{{{i}}}|wikinews}}.wikinews|N}}
| {{NUMBEROF|activeusers|{{Wikipedia rank by size|{{{i}}}|wikinews}}.wikinews|N}}
| {{NUMBEROF|files|{{Wikipedia rank by size|{{{i}}}|wikinews}}.wikinews|N}}</nowiki>|count=10 }}
|}
For a complete list with totals see Wikimedia Statistics: <ref name="Wikimedia Statistics">{{cite web|url=http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikinews#Statistics|title=Wikinews Statistics|work=[[WP:Meta|Meta.Wikimedia.org]]|access-date=11 September 2020}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[WikiTribune]]
* [[Wikitorial]]

== References ==
{{Reflist|30em}}

== External links ==
{{Commons category}}
{{Meta}}
{{Wikibooks}}
{{Wikiversity}}
* {{Official website}}
* [https://t.me/wikinews_zh_broadcast Chinese Wikinews Official Telegram Channel]

{{Wikimedia Foundation}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Advertising-free websites]]
[[Category:American news websites]]
[[Category:Citizen journalism]]
[[Category:Creative Commons-licensed websites]]
[[Category:Internet properties established in 2004]]
[[Category:Multilingual websites]]
[[Category:Wikimedia projects]]

Wikinews - Revision history

Tachyony: ←Replaced content with ''

Tachyony: Imported page