Social construction of knowledge in Wikipedia

Authors

  • Noriko Hara Indiana University
  • Jylisa Doney North Dakota State University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v20i6.5869

Keywords:

co-construction of knowledge, Wikipedia, Disaster

Abstract

This paper investigates how knowledge is constructed collaboratively in a crowd-sourced environment. More specifically, the study presented in this paper empirically analyzes online discussions in regard to Wikipedia entries on the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant Disaster that occurred in March 2011 in Japan. For this study, we examined the encyclopedia articles in both the English and Japanese versions of Wikipedia. The findings indicate similarities and differences between the two language versions. The implications of the study for collaborative knowledge production are also discussed.

Author Biographies

Noriko Hara, Indiana University

Noriko Hara is associate professor in the Department of Information and Library Science, School of Informatics and Computing at Indiana University Bloomington.

Jylisa Doney, North Dakota State University

Jylisa Doney is the Social Sciences Librarian at North Dakota State University.

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Published

2015-05-19

How to Cite

Hara, N., & Doney, J. (2015). Social construction of knowledge in Wikipedia. First Monday, 20(6). https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v20i6.5869