Knowledge equity and bias: a quantitative analysis of the content featured on Wikipedia’s Main Page
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12795/IC.2022.I19.07Keywords:
Wikipedia, gendergap, knowledge equity, race, digital activismAbstract
Wikipedia is one of the ten most visited websites in the world, and its Main Page receives the most visits of the entire enciclopedia. In a context in which digital cultures have become tools to propagate inequality and communication spaces run the risk of amplifying said inequality, this study wants to examine what role does Wikipedia play as a large-scale source of knowledge; whether it can overcome stereotypes and biases, whether it reproduces them, or whether it amplyfies them or changes them into other biases. We analyse the content that appears in the Main Page of English Wikipedia, specifically in the section of Today’s Featured Article, for all of 2019. The results obtained after the quantitative analysis show that biases related to gender, race and country of origin are reproduced, and that there is a real risk of bias amplification due to the great visibility of the Main Page. Action measures to correct this are proposed.
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