User:Houston.Stuart/sandbox

This is a user sandbox of Houston.Stuart. A user sandbox is a subpage of the user's user page. It serves as a testing spot and page development space for the user and is not an encyclopedia article.

Proposal for my edit of the page Wanted Poster

I believe there needs to be a drastic improvement to almost all aspects of this article. So far included in this article is a brief summary of what a wanted poster is, followed by a description of modern day wanted posters, electronic billboards. Later it expands upon the concept of bounties on wanted posters, the images used in wanted posters, and the idea of being wanted dead or alive. I believe this is where much of the revisions to this article must be made. First I would suggest removing the section “Images” as it does not contribute to the article. The information in this section is not well explained or connected to the article, but could still be considered relevant and worth saving. Second, very large parts of this article are either lacking greatly in information, or need to be completely rewritten. The sub sections “Dead or Alive” and “Bounty” are very short, and don't provide much to the article. I suggest rewriting these sections with greater detail, and giving some more examples or explanations of the ideas. Finally some additions need to be made to this article. Most importantly, this article needs to increase the amount of references it uses for its information. Almost none of the information on this article is cited. Adding more references would both increase the credibility of this article, and perhaps provide some new information on the topic. There also needs to be added a section referencing the iconic wanted posters commonly depicted in western movies and TV.

Current annotated bibliography as of 3/6/2014

The following is a blog written by the Autry National Center, which is a museum in Los Angeles, California, dedicated to exploring an inclusive history of the American West. It provides a review of a wanted poster produced by the Pinkerton agency. They remark how actual wanted posters in the Wild West did not look like how we imagine them. Although this is not an exact inquiry into the history of the wanted poster, I believe it does provide information that would be useful in Wikipedia’s article about the wanted poster. Although this is published on the website of a prominent museum, it is still technically a blog. I think this article could be considered credible, but only after a bit of fact checking.

CORREIA, NICHOLAS X., and FRANCISCO A. RAMOS. "The Autry Blog." The Autry Blog. N.p., 4 Aug. 2014. Web. 04 Mar. 2015.

True west magazine writes a short article on a turning point in the history of wanted posters. Although it is short, it does provide a few relevant facts that would greatly improve Wikipedia’s article on Wanted Posters. Since this is a published and somewhat known magazine I would regard the information it prints to be credible.

Trimble, Marshall. "When Were Photos First Put on Wanted Posters?" True West Magazine. N.p., 10 June 2013. Web. 05 Mar. 2015.

The following in an article written by The British Library reviewing the wanted poster of Adolf Hitler. This wanted poster, produced by British creators depicted the german chancellor as a classic Wild West criminal, and was used as propaganda during the war. I think this could be relevant in providing not only more real life examples of wanted posters, but by providing more insight into how wanted posters have been used to influence the public. This article also touches on the recurrent use of the idea of a wanted poster by media sources, which is something not yet mentioned in the Wikipedia Article on wanted posters that i believe is relevant and should be included. This item is published on the website for The British Library, a very credible source for information of all kinds, and therefore i think it can be trusted.

"Wanted Poster for Hitler." Wanted Poster for Hitler. The British Library, n.d. Web. 06 Mar. 2015.

Wanted poster for Percy Lefroy Mapleton (1881), the first such poster in Britain. Such posters were already common prior to this time in the United States.

A wanted poster (or wanted sign) is a poster distributed to let the public know of an alleged criminal whom authorities wish to apprehend. They will generally include either a picture of the alleged criminal when a photograph is available, or of a facial composite image produced by a police.

Description

The poster will usually include a description of the wanted person(s) and the crime(s) for which they are sought. Wanted posters are usually produced by a police department or other public government body for display in a public place, such as on a physical bulletin board or in the lobby of a post office, but in ages past wanted posters have also been produced by vigilante groups, railway security, private agencies such as Pinkerton, or by express companies that have sustained a robbery.

Electronic billboards

In 2007, the FBI began posting wanted posters on electronic billboards starting with 23 cities, and have been working to expand this system in other states. This allows them to instantly post a wanted notice in public view across the US. In 2010, the FBI claimed that at least 30 cases had been solved as a direct result of digital billboard publicity, and many others had been solved through the Bureau’s overall publicity efforts that included the billboards.^[1]

Bounty

Wanted posters for particularly notorious fugitives frequently offer a bounty for the capture of the person, or for a person who can provide information leading to such capture. More modern wanted posters may also include images of the fugitive's fingerprints.

Images

Composite images for use in wanted posters can be created with various methods, including:

E-FIT: Electronic Facial Identification Technique via computer
Identikit
PhotoFIT: Photographic Facial Identification Technique

Dead or alive

Historically, some wanted posters offering a reward contained the phrase "dead or alive". Thus one would get a reward for either bringing the person or their body to the authorities. This could indicate that the person was an outlaw, and that it was permissible to kill them. Alternatively it might mean that it was permissible to kill them if they resisted arrest.