Wikipedia

Today's task was to investigate Wikipedia, by finding two articles on unrelated topics and analysing them. I chose to analyse articles on my favourite artist, "Ashanti", and my favourite movie, "Blades of Glory".

After reading the Wikipedia article titled Ashanti (singer), I can say that this article was very accurate in relation to what I already knew about the singer. It covered all the basic topics which were required in order for the reader to acquire a decent understanding of Ashanti. It followed the Wikipedia guidelines by achieving the following: splitting the long article into several sections, it informed readers of a notable topic, it prevented ambiguity by stating the word "singer" in the title, it used and cited sources, it didn't have any bias or show any disrespect towards the topic, it didn't show any obscene or offensive images, and is an updated article including recent and up-to-date information on Ashanti. Overall, the article was fair and balanced and was not biased in any way of the chosen topic. Readers were given accurate information and no personal opinions were included.

The second article, titled "Blades of Glory (film) was also found to be an accurate article. It covered all basic topics of the topic, such as plot, cast, production, reception and box office. It also included some other topics to provide the reader with extensive information of the topic, including triva, real skaters on set, figure skating elements in the film, etc. The article also followed the Wikipedia guidelines, in the same way as the previously discussed article on Ashanti did. Overall, this article was also fair and balanced, lacking biases and personal opinions.

To conclude, I would not change anything about these articles, because they both consisted of extensive research and information that I am unaware of. Everything I knew about the topics were incorporated and extended on in the articles and were accurate. Everything was correctly referenced and cited, and no biases were conveyed in the articles. It is thus evident that although Wikipedia states that admittedly some articles are 'rubbish', there are articles which are completely accurate and useful. I believe the two articles that I researched are examples of these.

"Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" and Contemporary Digital Media

Walter Benjamin believed in the existence of an 'aura' which represented authenticity. He perceived photography and similar practices to be replicating original art forms, thus lacking authentic value. These ideas are still applicable when analysing contemporary digital media. Common forms of art in today's society that Walter Benjamin may consider reproductions of art, thus lacking an 'aura', include film, television and music. Music, recorded in a studio, could be portrayed as less authentic than if it was played live, according to the ideas proposed by Walter Benjamin. For purposes of further applying Benjamin's ideas to contemporary digital media, let's appreciate human beings and communication as forms of art. Benjamin would consider people to have an 'aura'. In the situation of a conversation between two people communicating via the internet using web-cams, this could be considered a violation of authenticity and a replication or reproduction of art, as according to Benjamin, digital things do not have an 'aura'. They are not genuine forms of art.

There was a time when "Art" was made by artists who were skilled professionals. Today, it is possible for practically anybody to digitally produce a variety of things and present them as art forms. It can therefore be said that there are two types of "Art": Authentic and non-authentic; original and reproduced; real and fake. From the ideas taken from Benjamin's article, digital technology should be the barrier which distinguishes an authentic piece of art from a non-authentic piece of art. Thus literally any form of photography, film, recorded sound, or digital editing (e.g. photoshop) should be considered as non-authentic art. To deny the existence of art in it's non-authentic form would be impossible, as society's progression and revolution of digital media and technology is ever increasing and it's products being named as works of "Art". To extend on Benjamin's ideas, it is therefore imperative to distinguish between the two types of art.