Sudden Attention Shifts on Wikipedia During the COVID-19 Crisis

We study how the COVID-19 pandemic, alongside the severe mobility restrictions that ensued, has impacted information access on Wikipedia, the world's largest online encyclopedia. A longitudinal analysis that combines pageview statistics for 12 Wikipedia language editions with mobility reports published by Apple and Google reveals massive shifts in the volume and nature of information seeking patterns during the pandemic. Interestingly, while we observe a transient increase in Wikipedia's pageview volume following mobility restrictions, the nature of information sought was impacted more permanently. These changes are most pronounced for language editions associated with countries where the most severe mobility restrictions were implemented. We also find that articles belonging to different topics behaved differently; e.g., attention towards entertainment-related topics is lingering and even increasing, while the interest in health- and biology-related topics was either small or transient. Our results highlight the utility of Wikipedia for studying how the pandemic is affecting people's needs, interests, and concerns.Comment: Manoel Horta Ribeiro, Kristina Gligori\'c and Maxime Peyrard contributed equally to this work. Also, this paper has been accepted at the 15th International Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM), please cite accordingl

Wikimedia and the Coverage of COVID-19 in Spanish: Collaborative Knowledge on Current Issues

El artículo analiza la producción y uso de contenidos sobre COVID-19 en Wikimedia en español. La llegada de la pandemia motivó acciones colectivas para generar entradas y contenidos de actualidad, en su misión de brindar información clara, neutral y confiable. En base a un abordaje cuantitativo y cualitativo de registros disponibles, así como herramientas analíticas oficiales y comunitarias, el artículo investiga: cantidad y tipo de objetos generados; visualización de artículos principales; dinámicas de edición y trabajo colaborativo; calidad y comparación entre ediciones. Los resultados muestran dinámicas de creación colaborativa que varían en función de temas, motivaciones de editores y volumen de la comunidad. Permiten ponderar en qué medida Wikimedia fue una fuente consultada y confiable, poniendo de relieve el lugar de las plataformas sin fines de lucro y la colaboración en masa, en un ecosistema mediático global en el que convergen medios de masas y socialesThe article analyzes the production and use of content on COVID-19 in Wikimedia in Spanish. The arrival of the pandemic motivated collective actions to generate current entries and content, in its mission to provide clear, neutral and reliable information. Based on a quantitative and qualitative approach of available records, as well as official and community analytical tools, the article investigates: quantity and type of objects generated; pageviews of main articles; editing dynamics and collaborative work; quality and comparison between editions. The results show collaborative creation dynamics that vary depending on themes, editor motivations and community volume. They allow us to assess the extent to which Wikimedia was a consulted and reliable source, highlighting the place of nonprofit platforms and mass collaboration in a global media ecosystem where mass and social media convergeupdatedVersionFil: Zanotti, Agustín. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Sociales; Argentina.Fil: Zanotti, Agustín. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios sobre Cultura y Sociedad; Argentina.Fil: Zanotti, Agustín. Universidad Nacional de Villa María. Instituto Académico Pedagógico de Ciencias Sociales; Argentina