Just a friendly reminder, that the research showcase on censorship will take place later today at 17:00 UTC (9:00AM PST/18:00PM CET). Livestream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z52wPt34rJc
On Fri, Feb 12, 2021 at 7:21 PM Martin Gerlach <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi all, > > The next Research Showcase will be live-streamed on Wednesday, February > 17, at 9:00 AM PST/17:00 UTC (Note that this is 30 minutes earlier than the > usual time). This month’s showcase will be around the topic of censorship > (of Wikipedia). In the first talk, Daniel Romero presents a study examining > the effect of censorship on the collaborative behavior of editors. In the > second talk, Margaret Roberts presents work on disaggregating the effects > of censorship on proactive vs incidental consumption of information. > > Youtube stream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z52wPt34rJc > > As usual, you can join the conversation on IRC at #wikimedia-research. You > can also watch our past research showcases here: > https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Research/Showcase > > > Talk 1: > > Speaker: Daniel Romero (University of Michigan) > > Title: Shocking the Crowd: The Effect of Censorship Shocks on Chinese > Wikipedia > > Abstract: Collaborative crowdsourcing has become a popular approach to > organizing work across the globe. Being global also means being vulnerable > to shocks – unforeseen events that disrupt crowds – that originate from any > country. In this study, we examine changes in collaborative behavior of > editors of Chinese Wikipedia that arise due to the 2005 government > censorship in mainland China. Using the exogenous variation in the fraction > of editors blocked across different articles due to the censorship, we > examine the impact of reduction in group size, which we denote as the shock > level, on three collaborative behavior measures: volume of activity, > centralization, and conflict. We find that activity and conflict drop on > articles that face a shock, whereas centralization increases. The impact of > a shock on activity increases with shock level, whereas the impact on > centralization and conflict is higher for moderate shock levels than for > very small or very high shock levels. These findings provide support for > threat rigidity theory – originally introduced in the organizational theory > literature – in the context of large-scale collaborative crowds. > > Talk 2 > > Speaker: Margaret Roberts (University of California San Diego) > > Title: Censorship's Effect on Incidental Exposure to Information: > Evidence from Wikipedia > Abstract: The fast-growing body of research on internet censorship has > examined the effects of censoring selective pieces of political information > and the unintended consequences of censorship of entertainment. However, we > know very little about the broader consequences of coarse censorship or > censorship that affects a large array of information such as an entire > website or search engine. In this study, we use China’s complete block of > Chinese language Wikipedia (zh.wikipedia.org) on May 19, 2015, to > disaggregate the effects of coarse censorship on proactive consumption of > information—information users seek out—and on incidental consumption of > information—information users are not actively seeking but consume when > they happen to come across it. We quantify the effects of censorship of > Wikipedia not only on proactive information consumption but also on > opportunities for exploration and incidental consumption of information. We > find that users from mainland China were much more likely to consume > information on Wikipedia about politics and history incidentally rather > than proactively, suggesting that the effects of censorship on incidental > information access may be politically significant. > > > -- > Martin Gerlach > Research Scientist > Wikimedia Foundation > -- Martin Gerlach Research Scientist Wikimedia Foundation
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