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Poor attention: The wealth and regional gaps in event attention and coverage on Wikipedia

Author

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  • Thorsten Ruprechter
  • Keith Burghardt
  • Denis Helic

Abstract

Wikipedia is an important source of general knowledge covering a wide range of topics. Moreover, for many people around the world, it also serves as an essential news source for major events such as elections or disasters. Although Wikipedia covers many such events, some events are underrepresented and lack attention, despite their newsworthiness predicted from news value theory. In this paper, we analyze 17 490 event articles in four Wikipedia language editions and examine how the economic status and geographic region of the event location affects the attention and coverage it receives. We find that major Wikipedia language editions have a skewed focus, with more attention given to events in the world’s more economically developed countries and less attention to events in less affluent regions. However, other factors, such as the number of deaths in a disaster, are also associated with the attention an event receives. Overall, this work provides a nuanced understanding of attention and coverage on Wikipedia through event articles and adds new empirical analysis to news value theory.

Suggested Citation

  • Thorsten Ruprechter & Keith Burghardt & Denis Helic, 2023. "Poor attention: The wealth and regional gaps in event attention and coverage on Wikipedia," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 18(11), pages 1-19, November.
  • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0289325
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0289325
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Dwaipayan Roy & Sumit Bhatia & Prateek Jain, 2022. "Information asymmetry in Wikipedia across different languages: A statistical analysis," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 73(3), pages 347-361, March.
    2. Shane Greenstein & Feng Zhu, 2012. "Collective Intelligence and Neutral Point of View: The Case of Wikipedia," NBER Working Papers 18167, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. repec:plo:pone00:0065782 is not listed on IDEAS
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