Wikinews is a free-content news wiki project operated by the Wikimedia Foundation. Its stated aim is to provide timely, freely reusable news articles written and edited by volunteers. Articles are produced by the community rather than by a single newsroom: contributors draft reports, refine wording, add sources and discuss disputes on article talk pages until the content meets community standards and is ready for publication.
Structure and editorial process
The site is structured like other Wikimedia projects: each story has an article page plus an associated talk page where editors discuss content, sources and phrasing. Drafts may undergo peer review, copyediting and fact-checking by other contributors before being moved to the live namespace. Older stories are retained in archives and, where appropriate, pages may be protected to preserve historical records.
Key characteristics of Wikinews' editorial approach include an emphasis on verifiability, attribution and neutrality. Community policies define acceptable sourcing and style; administrators and experienced editors often oversee publication readiness and may lock pages to prevent further edits once content is archived. The project also maintains templates and workflows to track ongoing coverage and to mark articles that need additional review.
History and development
Wikinews began as a Wikimedia community initiative in the early 2000s to apply wiki collaboration to news reporting. Over time it developed its own set of policies and procedures distinct from other Foundation projects, adapting the wiki model to the particular demands of timely journalism. The project grew into a multilingual collection of news sites, with contributors around the world adding coverage of local and global events.
Like many volunteer-driven efforts, Wikinews has experienced fluctuations in activity and contributor numbers. Its technical platform is the same wiki software used across Wikimedia, but editorial norms evolved to address issues specific to news: speed of reporting, source reliability, and the handling of original eyewitness accounts versus reporting based on secondary sources.
Uses, examples and importance
Wikinews serves several roles: it is a source of freely reusable news text for republication, a training ground for collaborative journalism practices, and a public archive of community-produced reporting. Teachers and students sometimes use Wikinews to illustrate open-source publishing and collaborative editing. Media outlets, researchers and local organizations can reuse articles under the project's license for noncommercial and commercial purposes so long as attribution is provided.
- Collaborative reporting and community editing
- Archival record of volunteer-produced news
- Resource for educational and research projects
Distinctions and notable facts
Wikinews differs from other Wikimedia projects in focus and licensing: it publishes news content intended for reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 license, which permits redistribution with attribution. This licensing choice and the demands of news coverage mean that its editorial policies are tailored differently from encyclopedic projects that emphasize synthesis and secondary sourcing.
Although smaller than some companion projects, Wikinews remains a notable experiment in open, volunteer-driven journalism. Its community continues to balance speed, accuracy and openness while preserving the freely licensed nature of its output for anyone to cite, republish or adapt with proper credit.