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This is an essay.

It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints.

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Possible titles: Hold your horses; Not just yet; Jumping the gun

Avoid jumping the gun when adding events to various lists and articles on Wikipedia. Oftentimes, inclusions on such lists and articles is premature given available information from reliable sources. In such cases, it is best to wait for sources to explicitly proclaim an event as fulfilling list-inclusion criteria or to be related to a particular article. Even it is seems "obvious" that the event belongs, it constitutes original research to make any connections without support from reliable sources to verify the claim.

Be cautious of initial event narratives. Even the most reliable sources have track records of errors when it comes to breaking news (see WP:RSBREAKING). Within the initial hours of a major event, information changes rapidly and should not always be trusted. The details of any event will eventually become clear and there is no need to report breaking news as it happens. It is better to wait for details to be confirmed than to repeat speculation, unconfirmed reports, and rumors. It may look like a duck and sound like a duck, but let sources call it a duck before including it in an article.

Wikipedia, as a tertiary source, is always "behind the times". There is no deadline to complete an article. As an encyclopedia, we do not worry about up-to-the-minute late-breaking news (that is for WikiNews). Rather, we detail past events with the clarity of time based on reliable sources.

Common cases

Shootings and terrorism

Mass casualty events are often presented as breaking news, but details inevitably will change. News outlets often report events according to witnesses or anonymous sources. These reports are dubious and should be triangulated with multiple reliable sources. Report qualified statements as qualified; do not state rumors or hearsay as fact.

Avoid proclaiming an event terrorism or Islamist terrorism unless multiple reliable sources support such a claim. The modus operandi may appear the same or bystanders may report telltale indicators (e.g., Nazi symbols, Allahu ackbar shouted, ethnicity of perpetrators), but we cannot conduct our own synthesis and we must rely upon statements by officials or reliable sources.

Deaths

Celebrity deaths are common, but subject to fake news and hoaxes. Wait for reliable sources to report a death as verified.

Politics

During political campaigns, news about announcements and endorsements are abundant. However, they are often leaked by anonymous sources and not always verifiable. There is no harm in waiting for a politician to make an official announcement or press release.

Examples

The following are examples of breaking news and media reports that eventually changed or were shown to be incorrect or cases when reliable sources had not caught up to social media reports.

Dewey Defeats Truman
Many editors changed Prince's article to reflect his death before reliable sources were available.^[1]
News reported police announcements of two snipers during the 2016 shooting of Dallas police officers and circulated an image of a man thought to be a shooter who later was found to be innocent.^[2]
The 2016 Ohio State University attack was originally reported as a shooting with possibly 2 shooters.^[3]

References

[1] ttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Prince_(musician)&offset=20160421202903&limit=500&action=history

[2] ttps://web.archive.org/web/20160708081203/http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/07/us/philando-castile-alton-sterling-reaction/index.html

[3] ttps://web.archive.org/web/20161128162108/http://www.cbsnews.com/news/ohio-state-university-active-shooter-on-campus/

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