Using Wikipedia to explore issues of systemic bias and symbolic annihilation in information sources

Book chapter


Ball, Caroline 2021. Using Wikipedia to explore issues of systemic bias and symbolic annihilation in information sources. in: Innovative Libraries.
AuthorsBall, Caroline
Abstract

Wikipedia is one of the most high profile and heavily used sources of information used by students today. The English language version contains over 5.8 million articles, growing at a rate of some 500+ new articles every day . It receives roughly 15 billion page views per month, making it the fifth most used website in the world . It is one of the first places students to go to find information.

However, Wikipedia itself is very far from a truly global source of information. As an information source, it betrays the biases of its contributors. The majority of Wikipedia editors are young, white, college-educated males, technically-inclined, living in majority-Christian, Western Hemisphere countries - a group that has been described as "a bunch of male geeks who are wealthy enough to afford a $2,000 laptop and a broadband connection" . Recent surveys have estimated that only 8.5% - 16% of Wikipedia users are female – even fewer are people of colour .

As a result, Wikipedia coverage in many areas suffer from this lack of representation. Articles about notable women are under-represented ; coverage relating to Africa, Latin American and the Middle East is rated by Wikipedia itself as poor to mediocre , and those that do exist are often written from a European or North American perspective ; articles on ‘universal’ topics often fail to include examples from these regions – do people in Africa not eat lunch, for example?

If the world increasingly uses a single information source, what happens when that information source is incomplete, biased or misleading, not because of any inaccuracies but because of issues of perspective, notability and bias? Absence can signify ‘symbolic annihilation’ – if people do not see faces like their own in the media and information they consume, the message that sends is that they are less important.

Focusing on Wikipedia’s shortcomings in these areas provides an opportunity to explore wider issues of systemic bias and representation with students, using a resource they are all familiar with but few truly understand. It enhances students’ evaluation and critical analysis skills and provides a new perspective on how information is researched, created and consumed – all vital skills in today’s ‘post-truth’ era when scarcely a day goes by without some ‘fake news’ story raising headlines and students’ digital literacy is increasingly under scrutiny.

Activities to teach systemic bias in Wikipedia can include: a representation hunt through traditional print media sources; a ‘wikihopping’ activity generating random articles and keeping a log of how many articles about men vs women, western country vs Africa, universal articles that omit certain countries or geographic regions; textual analysis of articles for perspective bias in language used, examples included or not, sources of referenced information used.

Keywordswikipedia; systemic bias; symbolic annihilation; information sources; information literacy
Year2021
PublisherInnovative Libraries
Web address (URL)http://hdl.handle.net/10545/626071
hdl:10545/626071
File
File Access Level
Open
File
File Access Level
Open
Publication dates01 Nov 2021
Publication process dates
Deposited29 Oct 2021, 08:08
Accepted15 Aug 2019
ContributorsUniversity of Derby
Permalink -

https://repository.derby.ac.uk/item/92202/using-wikipedia-to-explore-issues-of-systemic-bias-and-symbolic-annihilation-in-information-sources

Download files


File
license.txt
File access level: Open

using wikipedia.pdf
File access level: Open

  • 766
    total views
  • 117
    total downloads
  • 8
    views this month
  • 8
    downloads this month

Export as

Related outputs

The Learnt Curriculum: Adapting Culturally Sensitive Curricula Scales to Develop a Module Level Curriculum Toolkit
Ball, C., Turner, I. and Siddiqui, Y. 2024. The Learnt Curriculum: Adapting Culturally Sensitive Curricula Scales to Develop a Module Level Curriculum Toolkit. in: Thomas, D.S.P. and Quinlan, K.M. (ed.) Culturally Sensitive Curricula Scales: Researching, Evaluating and Enhancing Higher Education Curricula Springer/ Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 137-152
How do I benefit from Open Access & Open Research
Limbert, H. and Caroline Ball 2022. How do I benefit from Open Access & Open Research. University of Derby.
WikiLiteracy: enhancing students' digital literacy with Wikipedia
Ball, Caroline 2019. WikiLiteracy: enhancing students' digital literacy with Wikipedia. Journal of Information Literacy. 13 (2), p. 253. https://doi.org/10.11645/13.2.2669
Wiki literacy: using Wikipedia as a teaching tool
Ball, Caroline and White, Jonathan 2019. Wiki literacy: using Wikipedia as a teaching tool. LILAC Conference.
Teaching intelligence: putting Wikipedia at the heart of a class.
Ball, Caroline 2019. Teaching intelligence: putting Wikipedia at the heart of a class. Times Higher Education.
Wicca, witchcraft and the Goddess revival: An examination of the growth of Wicca in post-war America.
Ball, Caroline 2018. Wicca, witchcraft and the Goddess revival: An examination of the growth of Wicca in post-war America. in: Mago Books.
So you didn't get your Hogwarts letter: engaging muggles in the library experience
Ball, Caroline and White, Jonathan 2017. So you didn't get your Hogwarts letter: engaging muggles in the library experience.