Sourcewatch

SourceWatch (formerly Disinfopedia), is an internet site which is a collaborative project of the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD). It was created by the CMD's research director, Sheldon Rampton. According to the project's website, it "aims to produce a directory of public relations firms, think tanks, industry-funded organizations and industry-friendly experts that work to influence public opinion and public policy on behalf of corporations, governments and special interests."

Rampton created SourceWatch on January 15, 2003, and launched it publicly with 200 articles on March 10, 2003. According to SourceWatch's own statistics, it included over 15,000 articles as of March 2007. The content of Sourcewatch is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.

SourceWatch provided technical support and staff resources to host Congresspedia, which later merged with OpenCongress to become the OpenCongress Wiki.

Mission statement
According to SourceWatch, it aims: "to produce a directory of the people, organizations and issues shaping the public agenda. A primary purpose of SourceWatch is documenting the PR and propaganda activities of public relations firms and public relations professionals engaged in managing and manipulating public perception, opinion and policy. SourceWatch also includes profiles on think tanks, industry-funded organizations and industry-friendly experts that work to influence public opinion and public policy on behalf of corporations, governments and special interests. Over time, SourceWatch has broadened to include others involved in public debates including media outlets, journalists and government agencies] Unlike some other wikis, SourceWatch has a policy of strict referencing, and is overseen by a paid editor."

Editorial and security policies
The editor of SourceWatch is Bob Burton, who began to edit it part-time in October 2003. As its editor, Burton, who also serves as the project's main contact person, provides oversight as a public relations analyst. The stated goals for registered users who are permitted to edit SourceWatch are "accuracy and fairness." Its editorial guidelines stress the importance of maintaining the accuracy of its source citations and admonish its editors to "Be fair".

Sourcewatch is available on the web as a wiki, maintained by a community of interested users worldwide. When SourceWatch began, any visitor to the site could edit existing articles and create new ones. In April 2006, however, SourceWatch changed its policy, henceforth requiring users to register and log in before editing its articles and restricting unregistered visitors to reading articles only.

The Center for Media and Democracy sets the editorial and "security policies" under which SourceWatch operates. SourceWatch provides recommended editorial guidelines to its users but reserves privileges to modify content and to delete articles for its administrators, referred to (as in other wikis) as "Sysops". Information about "administrators" ("sysops") in SourceWatch is hyperlinked via its "FAQ".

Sponsor
The sponsor of SourceWatch is the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD), a nonprofit news media research group founded in 1993 by environmentalist writer and political activist John Stauber. In addition to SourceWatch, CMD publishes PR Watch, a quarterly newsletter edited by Laura A. Miller. The creator of SourceWatch, Sheldon Rampton, is CMD's research director.