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I need to start off by saying this- I rarely use wikipedia. My 9th grade english teacher, who was quite intimidating I might add, burned it into my head that wikipedia is not a valid source and therefore cannot be trusted. The most time I spend on that website is skimming through summaries of random things when I’m in a hurry and that’s usually it. However, this editing experience changed my views on that. After going through the Wiki Education modules and learning what it takes to edit an article on the site, I realized how much work, dedication, and collaboration goes into editing just one article on Wikipedia, and I have a new found respect for it.
At first, I was having a really hard time finding a topic that I knew enough about where I could edit an article about it. After exploring a few different ideas, I noticed that the article on Kevin Jonas, a band member of the well known group The Jonas Brothers, was only 46% complete. I had just gone to see the band in concert, and I knew that I had to do Kevin justice and give him the wikipedia article he deserved! (Well, I could try at least.)
With my main idea in place, I was finally ready to start editing! However, I had no idea where to begin. I started off by checking the talk page on the article, but it appeared that people hadn’t been active on it for quite some time- the last post was from 2014! I still posted on it, even though I knew I probably wouldn’t get a response, and I stated that I wanted to change the picture , as well as wanted to add a separate section altogether for the music he is involved with, since the music section was grouped in with his acting and other work sections.
After scouring the internet, I ended up not being able to find a recent picture that was legal for me to use on the page. I looked on CC search, googled it, and I even messaged my professors for help, but in the end it all fell short. I accepted my defeat and moved on to editing the article itself. The first thing I did was add that separate “music” header and section that I suggested on the talk page, and organized his career section by “acting” and “other work.” The article was missing a majority of the citations it needed, and the wording was weird in more than a few places, so I cleaned that up a bit and added in the correct citations. I also added information about their new album and documentary that came out a few months ago, since no one had added that in yet either.
Overall, this turned out to be pretty fun, but a little scary! Since so many people are going to see this, I don’t wanna be that person who messes it up- I’m just a beginner and I could be making mistakes without even realizing it. I think that even after this class is over, I will continue to make edits to different wikipedia pages so that I can gain more experience and skill. This could be the start of something new!
