>> hello and welcome to "global 3000." more and more knowledge is being stored online. today, we look at the opportunities and risks of making the web our main reference point for all sorts of information. here is what we have coming up: media companies adjust to the internet age. pr offensive -- how wikipedia's entries are manipulated.

and peru's precious potatoes, preserving the true gold of the incas. the internet has completely transformed the way we communicate. with apps, facebook, and twitter -- wherever there is a conflict or political repression, these social media platforms become essential tools to garner international support or spread messages of discontent. but there are great imbalances regarding who is online and who is not. here is our global count on how digital the world has gone already and who needs to catch up. if facebook were a country, it would rank number two on a list of countries with the most internet users worldwide. only second to china. but the chinese are in good company. by the end of 2014, the number of users will reach 3 billion. given 40% of the world population internet access.

despite the growing numbers, a majority remain disconnected from the worldwide web. unequal distribution of internet access across the globe is an issue of infrastructure and also gender. in industrialized nations, women are as likely as men to access the internet. that's not the same in developing countries. in south africa, 45% of women and in old africa ... has been witnessing a digital revolution. they have moved straight on to mobile phones and tablets. africa has been pioneering a global trend. mobile usage counts for a quarter of all web traffic. new mobile technology also inspired a startup scene. young people around the globe are developing cutting-edge apps to solve the problems of their society.

more and more print journalists are also being asked to go digital, getting the stories no longer enough to catch the attention of online readers. often they want to do a lot more than just read, so the big names in print are eager to offer online content that gives them an edge over text-based information. our reporter visited some of washington. newsrooms to find out how print is embracing the new media age. >> breaking news followed by more breaking news will make a new headline every second. nowhere is the media market more competitive than in new york. to survive and actually, media companies have to develop diverse strategies. 51-year-old public relations expert jim joseph writes a blog for the huffington post. >> while i might be giving my point of view, it's awesome to get their point of view back again. that gives me more to write

about, so it becomes a cycle of learning about them talking and dialogue and implying that we never had before because you just put an article out. then it keeps living, which is amazing. but thousands of other bloggers write for the huffington post, but they cannot live off their work. >> i am not paid to write my articles. i do it as part of my work in part of being a thought leader in the industry. i don't get paid to write the article. i do it because i enjoy it and like the interaction... >> without the internet, even a respected person from the new york times would not have a future because it's income is generated by advertising links. gabrielle dark now works for the guardian newspaper but it was once his job to retain as many new york times readers as possible. but our ability to tell stories

has gone from simply print and photographs to interactive to maps, to different types of games, to video and relate to all of those combined. >> this is one of the computer games invented for the new york times. it addresses an issue found in articles in the paper -- the dangers of writing text messages while driving. >> one of the strengths is that it really engages the reader, games or something they actively participate in. as soon as you have one of your readers engaging with your content, it becomes more easy to get them to care more about that content. >> several new york companies specialize in developing computer games for media outlets. one of them is games for change. the most popular article on the new york times in 2013

was not an article i made. it was an interactive quiz. increasingly, you have people who want to see a little more interaction and i think it's a little more interesting. games are seeing increased popularity across all demographics. >> and the companies benefit also. demand is growing for games that deal with socially relevant issues. >> this is half the sky movement, a point and click adventure game on facebook about fighting the oppression of women worldwide. it is based on the best-selling book of the same name written by a "new york times" journalist. >> he still considers himself a journalist but he knows the internet is setting new standards of journalism. journalists have to inform, entertain and carry

on a lively dialogue with readers. >> as soon as the more traditional journalists see it as complementing their journalism with something they cannot do, it makes them get more excited and encouraged about collaboration and the future of their storytelling because they find they are reaching a wider audience. >> the media market in new york and elsewhere will remain highly competitive. publishers and other media outlets have to constantly change in order to survive. >> for most of us, it's hard to imagine life before the internet, especially when you have a general question you want an immediate answer for. but thanks to sites like wikipedia, we can get those answers with a certain degree of accuracy, or so we think. millions of users can write, change and delete articles as a collective initiative to provide extensive information on pretty much any subject.

but what continues to be free access to knowledge for all also has a flaw -- public information agencies are helping customers tailor entries to suit their interests. is it manipulation or simply playing the system? see for yourself. here is more. >> it is one of the most popular websites -- wikipedia, the online encyclopedia. three quarters of all internet users of the site regularly visit. it has long since replaced print versions. >> you type a word in, the first site to pop up is wikipedia. >> i think the information is nearly as good as what i would find in the book. >> the idea was ingenious -- users can write, edit and improve articles anonymously. it was meant to create a giant store of information, credible and neutral. that was the theory, but wikipedia's open access has

repeatedly been abused to manipulate articles. in one on a vehicle maker, references to the companies making tanks for the nazi regime was deleted by someone at the company. in an entry about aviation, health danger information caused by airplane noise was deleted by someone at lufthansa. and that page on daimlerchrysler on the lobbying act about the company was deleted by someone at daimler. multiple attempts at manipulation have been exposed and corrected by other users. wikipedia insists it was not involved, but the website comes under fire constantly from public relation firms and lobbyists. until recently, this man was the executive director of wikipedia in germany. he says since wikipedia has

gone, so have attempts to manipulate articles. >> wikipedia is more than a website. it has become a widespread tool for all of us. the more widespread it has become, the greater the number of attempts by ideologues and pr agencies to insert their views and ideologies into wikipedia. >> and they are getting better at it. we met a consultancy insider. he will not talk about his clients but he will talk about tricks used to bypass editorial controls. >> there are lots of highly skilled professionals who put a lot of effort so that wikipedia doesn't have a chance to expose them. i have worked on several projects where i have replaced information or removed it. these changes were not identified as manipulation. >> this is how this is supposed to work -- normally, several users get together to write an article.

they discuss any changes until they reach a neutral, balanced result. but many of the anonymous users are in fact one professional. it could be easy for that person to change the article to suit their interest. he says he has lots of usernames or accounts. >> if you have a target article, you don't go with just one account, but several accounts to delete information bit by bit until everything you don't want is gone. if other users get involved, you start a discussion on the article and do that with 20, 30, or 50 accounts and not just your own. >> it is an infiltration that's nearly impossible to control. this is the wikipedia article on germany's biggest maker of slot machines. the company repeatedly comes under fire because some say its machines could lead to compulsive gambling. but in their wikipedia article, the phrase compulsive gambling

was replaced with excessive occasional playing habits. and a page about their lobbying was shortened to almost nothing. passages were apparently changed by people identified as company employees, including the press officer. the company does not deny this but says there was no intentional deception. >> hidden pr is bad. it is unethical, the work of the devil. pr should always be open because it can be manipulated when you don't know the source of the information. >> and there are those savvy enough to place advertising in articles. we could not find the term sweet and house and he did it -- in a dictionary. as though wikipedia was created for those who want to sell the wood frame houses.

it was written by a consultant and is full of positive descriptions. >> we have a picture of the object which shows a typical swedish house made by this company. >> and a link to the name and homepage of the company. good advertising? >> it's a good reference for the company. you are proud of it? >> i'm very proud of the result. >> these examples show why wikipedia should be worried. this man is one of the people hunting for pr manipulation on the online encyclopedia am one of 250 administrators who can be especially influential because they enjoy certain editing rights. he volunteers his times on evenings and weekends and he says attacks by pr people are getting more sophisticated. >> it's very advanced when the emphasis and tone of individual paragraphs are changed a little. for example, when somebody adds a half a sentence to a critique, it is an internal cat & mouse

game that has been going on for years. >> the biggest problem for wikipedia is the decline in the number of volunteers. an increase of articles by people who are paid by agencies. some are even administrators. >> i know several pr agencies in germany that have at least one user with status and they can have an unbelievable amount of influence on the discussion. >> you have told us you use several different accounts anonymously and insert information and nobody knows where it is coming from. that is not really compatible with the rules of pr, is it? >> what do you want to hear? >> is it just trivial offense? not when a source of information has become so prominent, says this media research scientist. >> it is a very serious problem for society on such a vast store of knowledge so many have

trusted and is used so often when it is undermined by political and financial interests. there's no gatekeepers to really examine and really look at each article to see if it was manipulated or not. >> wikipedia was started as a democratic product, open and independent. now there is a threat that could become an information monopoly undermined by financial interests. now wikipedia have reacted by requiring writers who work for cash to indicate they are professionals. at worst, offenders could lose access with the account they use. questions of participation are at the heart of this year's global media forum in bonn. there, journalists and policymakers discuss where our digital age is heading. check it out on our website and you can take heart yourself now. we get a very different take on globalization from a nun who lives on a philippine island where she

proves there's still a lot of life off-line indeed. >> i'm 45 years old and i live here. i can eat anything. that's why i can go to the mission. i can eat whatever is offered to me. the center where i am staying is an agricultural farm.

our agricultural schools, most of them, indigenous people are coming to our places. although we assist them, the possibility of earning further living is not very strong. and they have the difficulty of tuning in to market their product. i am a teacher. i'm also an animator in the center. but i am not earning anything. jerusalem.

i have leisure time with the lord. i pray and maybe this is where i get my strength to be able to help others. >> potatoes are so popular in germany that germans like myself are sometimes referred to as potatoes by people who aim to mock our love of the tasty carb. but there is so much more to this spud than meets the eye. their origins can be traced to south america and in peru, where they've grown for thousands of years. they come in many different shapes and colors. a team of scientists there is busy preserving their diversity for the generations yet to come. >> [speaking spanish]

>> she knows well what treasures lie in the earth. like everyone else here will stop in this region at an elevation of 4,000 meters, six communities work and form together just like the ink is good -- just like the dead. more than 4,000 potato gratin -- varieties grow. climate change could change that number. >> some years, it does not rain during the rainy season. it is too dry and then it suddenly rains during the dry season. >> frost sometimes comes earlier than expected. this potato froze before it could be harvested. they need every type of potato.

it gets sweeter as it is chewed and gets harvested even if it is infected with disease. this one contains a lot of water and is used in soups. this one is used to test brides to be. if she peels potatoes too slowly, the wedding is off... >> we plan for types of status. some are always planted. those resistant to frost or drought. so we always have something to eat. >> the variety is of interest to the international potato center. for years, they've been collecting as many potato species as possible. they analyze them and more importantly, they store them for the future. plant parts can survive for centuries in liquid nitrogen. potato seeds are examined and stored at -30 degrees celsius, they will keep for decades.

one aisle over, potato tubers are stored at four degrees celsius. they will be planted in a few months. cip maintains the world's largest potato in vitro gene bank that conserves the huge diversity and ensures genetic resources are secure. because over the centuries tubers from peru have become the world's third most consumed food. rodarte, scientists can answer the question, what will people be eating in the future? >> we are prepared for every change, whether from pests, disease, or climate change. the answer is stored here. these potatoes provide the crop yield we need, the resistance we need, the nutritional value and necessary adaptability.

>> the work of the scientists here cannily functions with the close cooperation of the farmers. they bring different varieties to this center. they also bring their knowledge about proper farming methods. the scientists give them tubers and seeds free of disease and promise a better harvest. harvest results are examined and each sack is labeled. >> the knowledge from both sides come together here. local knowledge about status, planting the data isn't planting the environment, after that star scientific background, we exchange ideas and work together.

>> it's also the best place to preserve what is best for the rest of the world. among other things, scientists are trying to determine which varieties contain the most vitamins. that information could prevent malnutrition in faraway lands. and it could perhaps provide more consumers for the crop that they bring home every night. the traditional method of planting potatoes ensures their own food supply. but the mixture is not suited to industrial reduction. >> the main market is the family. there's none in the sense of a market that provides a financial

income, but there's a sort of marketing for peruvian potatoes. >> because of that young people are leaving the countryside for the cities in search of a better life. even so, everyone comes together on the day of the potato. this year, it's being held in this community. just like centuries ago, it is celebrated with traditional music and dancing. this ritual is to thank mother earth for all she has provided.

the head of the community brings different offerings. during the speed peeling competition, women and men can prove they are fit to be married. and what better way to celebrate the potato then to eat it together? >> the potato. you heard it here first. that's all we have time for on this edition. more is always online, but for now, thanks for watching. good-bye. gg99ññwçça7gucç