Wikipedia pays poor attention to events happening in poorer regions

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2023-11-09 06:00

International

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Researchers analyzed over 17,000 articles in four language editions of Wikipedia, and found that more attention was given to events in the world’s more economically developed countries than to events in less affluent regions. Wikipedia serves as an essential news source for major events such as elections or disasters, and the authors say that this inequality of coverage could produce lasting inequalities in Wikipedia’s information composition.

Media release

From: PLOS

Attention to Wikipedia articles covering events is skewed towards those in high-income countries, with political events and disasters receiving particular focus over cultural and sports events, per analysis of 17,490 articles

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Journal/
conference: PLOS ONE

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: Graz University of Technology, Graz, Austria, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, United States of America, MODUL University Vienna, Vienna, Austria

Funder: This work was funded in part by Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and Army Research Office (ARO) under Contract No. W911NF-21-C-0002 awarded to KB.

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