Wikipedia has been my go-to resource for the last couple decades. The online encyclopedia includes entries on almost every person, place or thing of reasonable importance, and the greatest part about the website is that it is free to utilize.
We learned in our Digital Media Literacy course at ASU that Wikipedia is made possible by the thousands of people who volunteer their time researching and writing about topics that they are knowledgeable about. Anyone can become a Wikipedia editor. There are instructional pages on the Wikipedia website, such as this one that explains the steps on how to sign up for an account and the simple rules to follow in order to make a responsible impact.
For my final class assignment, I decided to make some corrections and add a section to the Wikipedia page about the Mesa Miners, an independent league baseball team that played in Arizona in 2005. I was fortunate to be a part of that franchise in the inaugural season of the league, so I had first-hand knowledge about the league and the team.
The information on the existing Wikipedia page made it seem as though the Mesa Miners were still in existence, so the first edits that I made were to change the language in the introductory paragraph to past tense. There was also a timeline on the right side info panel that read “2011-present” in the Arizona Winter League, so I corrected that as well.
The section that I added was about the media coverage of the team. My broadcast partner from community college in Southern California and I were the team’s broadcasters on the internet, so I added that information to the Wikipedia entry. Toward the end of the season, as the team was headed to the playoffs, we were able to negotiate a deal with a local radio station to air eight games on the remaining schedule. I added that information to the page, and cited the article in which that announcement was made.
In the overall picture, I am aware that this information is relatively useless, even if I end up becoming a prominent broadcaster. However, I feel that Wikipedia is similar to newspaper archives in that it preserves moments in time for future generations to access. This is a way for my successors to find a little tidbit of information about the year that I enjoyed broadcasting baseball in the Land of the Sun – until the team folded after only one season due to financial restrictions!
