Neutral or National Point of View? A Comparison of Srebrenica Articles across Wikipedia's Language Versions

Abstract

Wikipedia puts forward that each article gains more quality over time as the process of consensus building results in a neutral point of view. In this study we analyze the same article across different Wikipedia language versions, comparing the article titles, templates, tables of contents, particular content details, talk pages, editors’ names and locations, references and images. For the contentious articles in existence for at least five years, we found that they could be said to express rather national than neutral points of view. In the case in question, the Srebrenica massacre, the Bosnian, Dutch and Serbian article’s respective viewpoints can be attributed to specific sets of editors contributing in their own language version, and the references they employ. Editors of the various language versions participate in the English version, which results in a continually contested article often referred to (in the Serbian) as western. The Serbo-­‐ Croatian strives to be anti-­‐nationalist and apolitical, employing a variety of means to unify the Bosnian and Serbian points of view. In general, the analysis provides footing for studying Wikipedia's language versions as cultural references