Colbert Strikes Wikipedia, Part II
Stephen Colbert, fictional blowhard host of The Colbert Report, strikes again by asking viewers to vandalize the Wikipedia article [[Reality]] for a reward. (Wikipedia user Tawker, the administrator who staved off the earlier [[Elephant]] prank, was not amused.) Colbert has made it a running joke to have his viewers do his bidding by tampering with the collaboratively edited encyclopedia.
INTRO: Tonight - Microsoft hires someone to tamper with Wikipedia. Back off Gates! That’s my job…
COLBERT: This is the essence of Wikilobbying. When money determines Wikipedia entries, reality has become a commodity. And I’ll give 5 bucks to the first person who goes on Wikipedia to change the entry on Reality to that - “Reality has become a commodity.”
This time Wikipedians reacted quickly to the prank, but not before the first person got the edit in. At 11:39 Eastern US time, just after the challenge, a user managed to obey his command. Seconds later, the article was protected from editing by administrator Raul654.
Another example of the intertwined media ecology. Video available at the Colbert Report site, under Wikilobbying.
January 30th, 2007 18:36
This is why I thinkn that anything online resembles a game more than it resembles a window into reality.
Same goes for newspapers. Why do you think all these bloggers are playing with the system?
January 30th, 2007 21:36
In the end, Colbert is a comedian, an artist, a performer. Perhaps what he’s doing could be called performance art or a case study in resiliency.
I think deep down Colbert really respects Wikipedia and thinks it’s great, and pulls these stunts to showcase how the community can handle trolling and astroturfing to the site. That’s what I’d like to believe.