An Experience with Wikipedia in Exploring the Topic of Green Crime and Media
Exploring Wikipedia and become one of the contributors is joyful. Wikipedia opens my eyes to be a contributor and editor for the knowledge that already exist by doing a literature review and reading a credible sources. Wikipedia gives me an importance of being original in quoting sources into my own language. I believe by becoming a voluntary editor in wikipedia I can change the world though knowledge and beneficial information in learning through an open source. In this class assessment and learning I am doing an editing as well as adding one approach in the topic of Green Criminology. As in this class we are focusing of Media, Crime and Law Enforcement, I able to find and contribute one more approach for green criminology called green crime and media. It relates with green cultural criminology but more narrow and specific with media and crime.
The topic of green crime and media is increasing and deepening my knowledge about environmental science in general and expand new specialization in eco-crime and racism. Doing the research about green crime and media makes me able to intertwine broad topic of social science into environmental related issue. To solve an environmental problem requires a deep consideration of the people who were represented. I write about the importance of reading the race through an image and the degeneration of meaning of green as referred to the environment. Images can create a perception of race when the images of eco-crime portrayed as black or exploit the people of color who were in the location of eco-crime in the picture. Media also degenerates the meaning of green when it comes into greenwashing through the advertisement. For the sake of selling the product many brands of products claim their product as a sustainable product by greenwash the product through the advertisement. The use of green as a basis color and rhetoric’s is common to exploit the customers who are pro-environment when they choose the product to buy. Environmental justice is urgently to be examine though the depiction of images or eco-crime to provide the equality and free from any bias.
In observing the Wikipedia writing process, I learn a lot about how to cite and to bold the subheading. Luckily, I found a very interesting topic to explore. Wikipedia makes me learn how to paraphrase and being bold in searching the slot to contribute on the page which already started. Doing Wikipedia project will enhance the skill of conducting research as well as a social ability to collaborate between researchers. It is essential to grow and to support other people to grow together and make a continues contribution on the internet networking. Also, Wikipedia keeps me learning a new thing with references. I learn how to do interdisciplinary research and connecting between ideas from on paper with another paper to provide a new approach in the topic of green criminology. Plagiarism is one of the crimes in academic writing. I observe that doing Wikipedia project trains people to avoid plagiarism by reading the article comprehensively and write it down with their own words and their own interpretation. Another feature in Wikipedia is that we can link our word with other pages in Wikipedia and this will contribute to the interconnected of terms in Wikipedia so that reader can easily read the pages that relates with the topic they read. Wikipedia is beneficial for volunteer editor as well as a reader where Wikipedia connects both knowledge and the agent of information provider. Information is very important nowadays and providing a trusted information is essential to support global education integrity. Wikipedia is design to track the quality of the information provided and make a healthy environment of knowledge accessing.
Becoming a part of volunteer editor in Wikipedia gives me an inclusivity of knowledge and make me humble and willing to share something that I like and willing to know more through this platform. Sharing the information with a reference keeps me from being opinion centric in learning a new thing. The feeling when I share and contribute is great and it just increase my knowledge. I feel when I contribute to Wikipedia, I also contribute to the world because Wikipedia is one of the most accessed platforms on the internet. Taking a part of knowledge development in Wikipedia is one of the experiences which I think all the intellectual should do. Wikipedia makes intellectual more inclusive with the public and humble by providing a knowledge sharing. Collaboration is essential is sustaining the free knowledge and to make it accessible. The role of collaborator as a volunteer editor is benefitted by the feature to edit and talk about what somebody has provide or just making a small change. The idea of being bold from Wikipedia training is liberating for me because it motivates myself to search and being bold in writing, exploring the lack of the pages in providing an accurate information for the topic. Respecting each other is also important to consider among the volunteer. Being a volunteer in Wikipedia is also needed to have a moral and ethic in editing or even changing somebodies works on Wikipedia. Using a polite and proper word in talk feature and willing to accept other editors is essential for growing Wikipediaes pages. I think Wikipedia taught me how to be a trusted, polite, and bold writer at the same time. Skill is important but ethic and moral as a writer and researcher is more important to have and Wikipedia provides those learning process and teach the volunteer how to act on the internet platform.
