Wikipedia can be categorized, along with Google, You Tube, Facebook, and others, as one of the most influencial media on the World Wide Web. The concept of Wikipedia is that it is a free, online encyclopedia in which the site’s users provide its content. Anyone can create and edit content within the site.
According to the Wikipedia entry for Wikipedia, itself, the site has over 8.2 million articles in 253 different languages and is one of the top ten most visited sites on the web (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia)
With so many users who rely heavily on Wikipedia to deliver accurate information, it is accurate to assume that there is someone somewhere responsible for monitoring the information perceived as the truth on Wikipedia. In this case, truthful information can be considered to be the norm. While it is not considered to be “unlawful” to manipulate information on Wikipedia, it can be considered to be undesirable in the eyes of the majority of society. Therefore, Wikipedia relies on two forces that seek to regulate the medium.
The Leviathan found on Wikipedia is two-fold. Firstly, Wikipedia relies on users to self-regulate entries. Additionally there is a team of editors who seek to preserve the validity of Wikipedia entries. In terms of self-regulation, Wikipedia relies on users to revise what they see as inaccurate information by providing users with the ability to edit entries. In this instance, Wikipedia users are the Leviathan, themselves. Wikipedia fans pride the site on this feature, claiming that it allows the site to deliver the most accurate and up-to-date information. Additionally, a team of editors monitor Wikipedia and have the ability to lock articles from being edited, deter editing, or delete pages altogether.
Wallace’s analysis of the search for the Leviathan sites Richard C. MacKinnon’s mention of “netiquette”. Netiquette, he claims, is preserved by Internet users because such individuals want the Internet to flourish. This accurately describes how Wikipedia users serve as the Leviathan by self-monitoring entries on Wikipedia. While vandalism could be easily encouraged by the site’s open nature, it is often curbed by the assumption that most people rely on Wikipedia for accurate information and therefore are discouraged from obstructing information.
MacKinnon also argues that “people willingly give up freedoms in order to preserve the value and energy of the medium itself.” This concept explains how WIkipedia users succumb to the enforcement provided by Wikipedia editors. Wikipedia users must acknowledge that what they are entering on the site as truth, can be edited or removed by the site’s managers. Users, however, accept this feature as it preserves the overall credibility of the site.
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I thought this post was great. Everything was connected to Wallace's theory very nicely! I liked how you decided to use Wikipedia as a forum replete with moderators or leviathons. In terms of leviathons, I feel that each and every one of us is a leviathon, always self-presenting ourselves so we fit into some societal norm. If we are not self-presenting ourselves, then we are telling others to be a certain way, whether we question a friends overuse of proper grammar on aim, or criticize someones sense of style. In the end, we are all just trying to fit in, and thus in the process, we have become leviathons.
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