It sounds interesting, Laura. There are a couple of parameters that may create issues, specifically the gender and geolocation of editors of the articles (most editors do not gender-identify or specify their geographic location), but it's a pretty thorough review of the interrelationships between the various WMF projects and with external media.
Risker/Anne On 17 June 2012 21:58, Laura Hale <[email protected]> wrote: > I think I brought this up in another post about developing a methodology > to determine this based on a number of offline conversations I was having. > As this might be of interest to people doing research on women's > involvement for Wikipedia, I'm crossposting this here from my blog. The > entry can be found at > http://ozziesport.com/2012/06/measuring-the-influence-of-wikipedia-on-public-thinking-in-australian-womens-sport-a-proposed-methodology/. > It isn't necessarily the one I will ultimately use when I set out to do > this, but working to set up some of the tools to allow measuring for this > in the near future. If anyone has any thoughts on how to better measure > the influence of Wikipedia for public thought formation, especially as it > pertains to women's issues, that would be much appreciated. > > > > > * > * > *Measuring the influence of Wikipedia on public thinking (in Australian > women’s sport): A proposed methodology* > This entry was posted by Laura on Monday, 18 June, 2012 > > I spend a lot of time thinking about Wikipedia and talking to people in > Australia’s sport sector about Wikipedia, Wikinews and Commons. Some of > those I have talked to tend to agree that Wikipedia has value, potentially > more value than a news story from a traditional outlet where the story > quickly disappear. There is still a question of: “Why does Wikipedia > matter?” The most obvious answer is “Page views demonstrate meaning. > People are going to Wikipedia for information about sport, Australian > sport, and women’s sport. The page views clearly demonstrate that > Wikipedia matters and is worth contributing to as an organisation.” This > argument doesn’t always work and I’ve been challenged to demonstrate > Wikipedia’s influence on the topic of Australian women’s sport. > > This is in some ways a frustrating endeavor. How do you measure > Wikipedia’s influence beyond page views? As a person who loves research > design, I have a number of ideas but how to implement and analyze > information is still something I am struggling with because I keep coming > back to the need to possibly use a qualitative approach reliant on survey > research… and that always makes me nervous. Still, with this in mind, the > following methodology is one I have been leaning towards trying to write up > more formally. > > > * > Benchmark English Wikipedia, English Wikinews and Commons coverage of > Australian women’s sport:* > > Develop a list of all existing articles pertaining to Australian > women’s sport on English Wikipedia. The list would include biographies, > sport teams, leagues, organisations and people connected to administering > women’s sport, competitions, articles about women’s sport in the country, > articles about sport in the country, general sport articles that broadly > intersect with Australian women’s sport such as women’s basketball and the > Olympic games. Once the list is created, benchmark the following for each > article: > Determine the existing size of the article. > Identify projects the article is part of. > Identify current article assessment. > Date article was created and who created it. > Determine the number of contributors to the article. > Determine the gender ratio for article contributors. > Determine the geographic location of article contributors. > Determine the historic page views for the article. > Determine if the article has appeared at Did you Know, and average > traffic before and after it appeared. > Determine if there is a spoken word version of the article. > Count the number of pictures on each article. > Develop a list of all existing news stories about Australian women’s > sport on English Wikinews. > Determine the historical traffic to these articles. > Identify the categories these articles are included in. > Identify if the article is synthesis or original research. > Identify all Wikipedia articles the story is linked on. > Develop a list of all photographs pertaining to Australian women’s > sport on Commons. > Develop a list what articles these images are used on across > Wikimedia Foundation projects. > Develop a list of contributors for images in this space. > > This data will provide a framework for understanding the story of > Australian women’s sport coverage on Wikipedia, and will enable case > studies to be developed around any potential editing efforts affiliated > with a study. This data is largely background, which can help to > contextualise data around Wikipedia as it pertains to influence thought > formation. > > > > *Benchmark interest in English Wikipedia, English Wikinews and Commons > coverage of Australian women’s sport:* > > The next step is possibly the more difficult one: How do we contextualise > Wikipedia articles to understand where they sit as resources people turn to > for information? Below are quantitative, web based measures to try to > determine this: > > The News > Find the number of articles in the media that link to/mention an > article on Wikipedia about a topic. > Check articles about a topic to find examples of media plagiarism > of Wikipedia articles. > Academia > Identify the number of times an academic text uses Wikipedia as a > source. > Identify which academics reference Wikipedia. > Sport Institutions > Count the number of links to Wikimedia content on their website. > Count the number of links to Wikimedia content on their social > media related portals. > The Community > Facebook > Measure the number of likes for a Wikipedia article on > Facebook. > Twitter > Measure the number of links to an article. > Identify who is tweeting about the article, get their > individual Twitter metric data. > Get the metric data for all the followers of a person tweeting > about a topic. > Google+ > Measure the number of links to an article. > Identify who is tweeting about the article, get their > individual Google+ information. > LiveJournal and clones > Measure the number of mentions for an article on LiveJournal > and its clones. > Get the community or user metrics for including the links. > Google search > Determine the ranking of the Wikipedia and Wikinews articles > on Google. > Using Google Trends, determine the relative number of searches > for these topics and where they are origination from, both with and without > Wikipedia in the search phrase. > Yahoo!Answers > Measure the number of questions about the topic. (Closed, and > open.) > Measure the number of questions on Wikipedia about articles. > Measure the number of answers that reference the article. > > While these can help measure a certain level of influence, they do not > necessarily explain why people are citing or how this forms thinking. > Results would just suggest current levels of awareness but not necessarily > influence. The two are really separate points. > > *Survey attitudes towards English Wikipedia, English Wikinews and Commons > coverage of Australian women’s sport:* > > A third methodology is needed to complement the previous two. As much as > it pains me, a qualitative methodology needs to be used: Survey work needs > to be completed. The following groups need to be surveyed with questions > seeking specific information in certain areas. The following are some > broad themes for this group. > > The media > As a journalist, what is their opinion of Wikipedia in this area? > Have they used Wikipedia, Wikinews or other projects as a resource > when working on a story? > Academics and students > As an academic or student, what is their opinion of Wikipedia in > this area? > Have they used Wikipedia, Wikinews or other projects as a resource > when working on papers? > Sport industry participants including athletes > As members of the sport industry, what is their opinion of > Wikipedia in this area? > Have they actively sought to improve content related to themselves > or their sport organisation on WMF projects? > Sport fans and participants > Do they use Wikipedia for information and how reliable do they > consider it to be? > Do they contribute to Wikipedia? > > This information would then need to be wrapped around existing research > that discusses the influence of the media, in this case in an Australian > and sport context, academia and industry influence on forming public > perception. An approach also needs to be developed which can include a > before and after treatment for a content improvement drive in this area. > In doing the first part, it should hopefully become apparent where there is > a need for articles to be improved or created to develop a class of > articles for improvement. > > > Sincerely, > Laura Hale > -- > twitter: purplepopple > blog: ozziesport.com > > > _______________________________________________ > Gendergap mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/gendergap > >
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