WikiCite 2018/WikiProject Newspapers aka "Newspapers on Wikipedia"

WikiProject Newspapers aka "Newspapers on Wikipedia"

Are you interested in the public's ability to assess news quality?

AND/OR

Are you curious about WikiProjects?

Then this is the session for you! WikiProject Newspapers, a volunteer-driven project aiming to create 1,000 short Wikipedia articles about local U.S. newspapers, is nearing the end of its six month run. What can we do to get to that goal -- or at least get a bit closer? Can we write three or four new drafts? Or review drafts that students or professors across the country have been working on? Can we add infoboxes to a few articles that don't have them? Can we fix some problems with existing Wikipedia articles on newspapers (e.g., no independent sources, written like an advertisement, etc.)

Join us if you want to roll up your sleeves and edit Wikipedia, learn how a WikiProject can work, and experience a nice intersection between experts (e.g. digital media scholars) and enthusiasts (Wikipedians).

Here is a short report on what was accomplished in this session.

Using OpenRefine to add newspapers to Wikidata

(Susannaanas) took a csv dataset of historical Finnish newspapers and imported it into OpenRefine. She then started reconciling it against data already in Wikidata. Eventually she will be able to create and update the records of 350 newspapers, adding information about the publisher, the ISSN, the timespan, language, place of publication.

Adding descriptions to Wikidata entries

Stas Malyshev noted that many relevant Wikidata entries lack descriptions entirely, and set about adding basic descriptions.

Started draft article of the Stayton Mail

Several of us (primarily user:Delsborg (new to Wikipedia, but experienced with MediaWiki) and Satdeep Gill (longtime Wikipedian in English & Punjabi, works for Wikimedia Foundation) began a draft article on the Stayton Mail, a small newspaper in Oregon.