"(Weitergeleitet von Journalistin)": The Gendered Presentation of Professions on Wikipedia

Previous research has shown the existence of gender biases in the depiction of professions and occupations in search engine results. Such an unbalanced presentation might just as likely occur on Wikipedia, one of the most popular knowledge resources on the Web, since the encyclopedia has already been found to exhibit such tendencies in past studies. Under this premise, our work assesses gender bias with respect to the content of German Wikipedia articles about professions and occupations along three dimensions: used male vs. female titles (and redirects), included images of persons, and names of professionals mentioned in the articles. We further use German labor market data to assess the potential misrepresentation of a gender for each specific profession. Our findings in fact provide evidence for systematic over-representation of men on all three dimensions. For instance, for professional fields dominated by females, the respective articles on average still feature almost two times more images of men; and in the mean, 83% of the mentioned names of professionals were male and only 17% female.Comment: In the 9th International ACM Web Science Conference 2017 (WebSci'17), June 25-28, 2017, Troy, NY, USA. Based on the results of the thesis: arXiv:1702.0082

Wikipedia gender gap: a scoping review

In this scoping review, we portray an examination of the gender gap on Wikipedia by analyzing scholarly literature from 2007 to 2022. Employing quantitative methods, the study identifies key author characteristics such as gender, disciplines, countries, and institutions. The research reveals a slight majority of female authors, followed by male authors, with limited representation from non-binary authors. Qualitatively, content analysis uncovers two central themes: addressing the contribution gap and incorporating content related to underrepresented genders. Additionally, the study assesses results on the content gap, editing and participation bias, readership imbalances, and strategies to mitigate the gender gap. Furthermore, it explores the repercussions of this gap and categorizes the contributing factors as “the women’s problem,” “the mirror effect,” and “the systemic problem.” Overall, this comprehensive review enhances our comprehension of the Wikipedia gender gap and provides valuable insights into the research landscape in this domain

Biased Political Information in Search Engines and Their Effects

Since the rise of digitalization, search engines and online platforms have been increasingly used to search for political information. To find out more about a political topic or political actors immediately, the first place to go for many people today is to go online to Google Search. Research showed that algorithms, including algorithms in search engines, are prone to biases that can impact users' attitudes. Still, political information in search engines and inherent biases have received low attention in empirical political science research. We do not know yet whether the information about political actors displayed in search engines may be systematically different based on specific characteristics like gender. We also do not understand how biased political information in search engines that are also widely trusted may affect individuals and their attitudes. For this reason, I systematically analyzed information for German political actors to see if there are such biases in search engines. I conducted an online experiment to investigate the potential effects of biased information in the context of a salient political topic, i.e., refugees. Another comparative political study goes beyond Germany and analyzes latent interest in European politicians in online search in multiple European countries, which has not yet been possible with other publicly available search query data. I found that the information displayed in Google search suggestions for politicians and their Wikipedia articles, which most users visit after Google searches, can be biased by their party and gender identity. However, other social identities seem to be more crucial for the latent interest in political actors in the European political online search, especially the nationality of political actors as well as having a supranational political role. Moreover, a strong political group identity plays a crucial role in how politically biased information influences political attitudes and how individuals engage with it online. Particularly, negatively biased political information about refugees in search engines has a polarizing effect on asylum attitudes among individuals at the left and right margins of the political spectrum who also show a confirmation bias in intended click behavior. Finally, I argue that media literacy in education and more research are needed to identify and address new challenges to democracy due to the increasing importance of online search

Wikipedia @ 20

Wikipedia’s first twenty years: how what began as an experiment in collaboration became the world’s most popular reference work. We have been looking things up in Wikipedia for twenty years. What began almost by accident—a wiki attached to a nascent online encyclopedia—has become the world’s most popular reference work. Regarded at first as the scholarly equivalent of a Big Mac, Wikipedia is now known for its reliable sourcing and as a bastion of (mostly) reasoned interaction. How has Wikipedia, built on a model of radical collaboration, remained true to its original mission of “free access to the sum of all human knowledge” when other tech phenomena have devolved into advertising platforms? In this book, scholars, activists, and volunteers reflect on Wikipedia’s first twenty years, revealing connections across disciplines and borders, languages and data, the professional and personal. The contributors consider Wikipedia’s history, the richness of the connections that underpin it, and its founding vision. Their essays look at, among other things, the shift from bewilderment to respect in press coverage of Wikipedia; Wikipedia as “the most important laboratory for social scientific and computing research in history”; and the acknowledgment that “free access” includes not just access to the material but freedom to contribute—that the summation of all human knowledge is biased by who documents it. Contributors Phoebe Ayers, Omer Benjakob, Yochai Benkler, William Beutler, Siko Bouterse, Rebecca Thorndike-Breeze, Amy Carleton, Robert Cummings, LiAnna L. Davis, Siân Evans, Heather Ford, Stephen Harrison, Heather Hart, Benjamin Mako Hill, Dariusz Jemielniak, Brian Keegan, Jackie Koerner, Alexandria Lockett, Jacqueline Mabey, Katherine Maher, Michael Mandiberg, Stephane Coillet-Matillon, Cecelia A. Musselman, Eliza Myrie, Jake Orlowitz, Ian A. Ramjohn, Joseph Reagle, Anasuya Sengupta, Aaron Shaw, Melissa Tamani, Jina Valentine, Matthew Vetter, Adele Vrana, Denny Vrandeči

Wirtschaften. Kulturwissenschaftliche Perspektiven.

Unter dem Titel „Wirtschaften. Kulturwissenschaftliche Perspektiven“ fand 2017 in Marburg der 41. Kongress der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Volkskunde (dgv) auf Einladung des Instituts für Europäische Ethnologie / Kulturwissenschaft der Philipps-Universität Marburg statt. Die vorliegende Publikation liefert eine umfassende Dokumentation der auf dem Kongress diskutierten Beiträge