S.A. #4: Integrity, Intertextuality, and Exigence of Wikipedia Articles
The sources for the Wikipedia page "John Bauer (Illustrator)", are credible, published books, some of which are exclusively about Bauer. This is especially advantageous for readers wishing to gleam knowledge from this article because the information comes from published works. None of the sources are unreliable, they are all respected. A few of them are even textbooks. Because of this there is no uncertainty as far as the integrity of the sources.
There is a spelling error in the first sentence of the section on "Courtship and marriage". Bauer's name was spelled "Baer". It is unknown whether this error occurred because of a simple editing oversight, or if the writer of that particular section was not knowledgeable on the subject to spell his name correctly. Other than that, upon further investigation other facts proved true including that Bauer met his wife, Ester Ellqvist, while at school at the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts, that the Bauer's and their son, Bengt, died by drowning in a mass causality boat accident on Lake Vattern, that historic painter, Gustaf Cederstrom was one of his teachers, and that his famous painting The Fairy Princess was inspired by his wife.
The information in this article is very reliable, albeit the minor spelling error here and there, but not every writer has the patience to re-read their work. The sources are what make this article reliable. Because the article is not ridden with extraneous details readers might find it more in accordance with the true facts of Bauer's life.
The article functions similarly to Porter's theory of intertextuality in that it has elements of iterability and presupposition. The article uses references, quotes from Bauer's art professors, and traditions of culture while making the assumptions about the reader that he or she is knowledgeable of certain types of art such as frescos and cultures within Sweden without giving explanation on these topics.
After reading the Wikipedia article in its entirety, it became obvious that the writer (or writers) included information that was especially valuable that piqued interest in the reader. This is similar to what Killingsworth writes on when he explains concepts of human interest and news value when considering how an audience will interpret information. "For a story to be considered "news," it must tell readers something they don't already know, something they haven't already heard or become accustomed to" (Killingsworth 134). There were obviously details of Bauer's life that were not newsworthy enough to include, but the writers focused on facts that were unique and personal that readers might not have known.
Read the Wikipedia article here:
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