Arothsch

Local Historical Newspapers On Wikipedia Project (#LHNOW)

One of my current interests is improving the coverage of historic local newspapers in Wikipedia. One of the best ways for readers to sort out whether a newspaper is real or fake is to check Wikipedia to see if it has an article (and what that article says). Having newspapers documented is also crucial to Wikipedia internally, since many historical claims are sourced to local papers, and editors require context on the nature of the publication the material appears in.

Yet only 38% of local papers have a Wikipedia page. The problem is particularly bad with weekly papers in small towns, even though many of these papers have publication histories going back to the 1800s. I am participating in a project initiated by Michaelacaulfieldin this area to improve the quality and reliability of local news sources, particularly historic newspapers.