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Throughout LIBE 467, we were asked about the use of online crowd-sourced encyclopedias such as Wikipedia and the place they had within our SLLC’s. I concluded that Wikipedia is a great place for students to start their research, but that it is also a great place for students to practice their informational literacy skills specifically accuracy and bias.
We then read a great article “Wikipedia and Britannica: The Kid’s All Right (And So’s the Old Man)” by Paul Berinstein. It suggested Wikipedia is as accurate as Encyclopedia Britannica and that maybe people should be judged “by their actions, not their titles” (Berinstein 7-8). This made me question the representation and bias of these sources. In addition, a comment my LIBE 467 professor made contributed to my curiosity: the inclusion or exclusion of information in an encyclopedia could also be considered bias (Oxley). My hypothesis was that Wikipedia’s contributors would be more diverse than Encyclopedia Britannica’s “experts” because academia has in the past been very white and Eurocentric and that Wikipedia would have less bias than Encyclopedia Britannica because anyone can contribute.
When selecting an encyclopedia to use within the SLLC, a teacher librarian must consider the following: accuracy, authority, currency, format, indexing, objectivity, and scope (Riedling and Houston 67). I wanted to look more deeply at the demographic that writes for each of the encyclopedias and how objective their content is.
I was able to find this infographic on Encyclopedia Britannica’s contributors. They highlight that they include Nobel Prize Winners, Heads of State and World Leaders, Sports Figures, and US Presidents and include diverse names but they do not identify or acknowledge if, on the whole, their team is representatively diverse, which speaks volumes (Britannica). On the other hand, Wikipedia is open about their lack of diversity and states that 89% of Wikipedia editors are white (Davis). This shows that Wikipedia does not represent the demographics of the US population but at least they are transparent about it and have a plan to address the issue (Davis).
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| Encyclopedia Britannica Infographic |
Student groups at the University of Toronto were unhappy with the gender representation of Wikipedia and had edit-a-thons to create a better balance of representation (Muralidharan). This seems to have made a difference because in North America, 67% of Wikipedia contributors are now women (Davis). Britannica’s does not acknowledge their gender representation (Britannica).
Greenstein and Zhu conducted research on the objectivity of crowd-sourced content versus expert-sourced content. They found similar articles appearing in both at the same time that covered “identical or nearly identical topics in U.S. politics” to compare how they were written (Greenstein and Zhu 946). They referenced studies that suggested that online communities might have more bias because expert-based sources are selected based on their authority, objectivity, and reputation (Greenstein and Zhu 947). On the other hand, crowd-sourced content is often authored by a more diverse base “which can offer advantages such as greater productivity, more innovation, and better knowledge integration in a contested debate” (Greenstein and Zhu 947). They go on to say that encyclopedias such as Britannica make revisions before publication and then do not make further revisions. Crowd-sourced encyclopedias have frequent revisions so that the “content is more likely to obtain input from groups with different viewpoints” (Greenstein and Zhu 948). When it is a divisive topic, editors must compromise on how it is presented.
Greenstein and Zhu’s final conclusions found that crowd-based encyclopedias do not produce more bias than expert-based encyclopedias as long as they were extensively revised (Greenstein and Zhu 954). They also noted that because Wikipedia is the go-to encyclopedia for many, that Encyclopedia Britannica should focus on more niche areas that do not have as many knowledgeable people to provide revisions (Blanding). Wikipedia has the potential to better represent diverse people as long as they are willing to participate.
These findings highlight the importance of using encyclopedias as a starting point for research but ensuring that students use their information literacy skills to question who is writing the article, what information has been omitted, if the information is accurate, and if it is objective. A teacher librarian is a pivotal person in helping students identify these areas.
Works Cited:
Berinstein, Paula. “Wikipedia and Britannica: The Kid’s All Right (And So’s the Old Man).” Information Today Inc., https://www.infotoday.com/searcher/mar06/berinstein.shtml. Accessed 1 April 2023.
Blanding, Michael. “Wikipedia or Encyclopædia Britannica: Which Has More Bias?” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 20 Jan. 2015, https://www.forbes.com/sites/hbsworkingknowledge/2015/01/20/wikipedia-or-encyclopaedia-britannica- which-has-more-bias/?sh=4d2cc3257d4a. Accessed 1 April 2023.
Davis, LiAnna. “Changing the Face of Wikipedia.” Wiki Education, 10 Aug. 2021, https://wikiedu.org/blog/2021/08/10/changing-the-face-of-wikipedia/#:~:text=89%25%20of%20U.S.%20Wikipedia%20editors,population%20percentage%20of%205.7%25). Accessed 1 April 2023.
Greenstein, Shane, and Feng Zhu. “Do Experts or Crowd-Based Models Produce More Bias? Evidence from Encyclopedia Britannica and Wikipedia.” MIS Quarterly, vol. 42, no. 3, 2018, pp. 945–959., https://doi.org/10.25300/misq/2018/14084.
Muralidharan, Oviya. “Wikipedia's Lack of Representation.” The Varsity, 17 Mar. 2019, https://thevarsity.ca/2019/03/16/wikipedias-lack-of-representation/. Accessed 1 April 2023.
Oxley, Kristie. “Week Seven.” The University of British Columbia, 21 Feb. 2023, https://canvas.ubc.ca/courses/115685/discussion_topics/1754562. Accessed 1 April 2023.
Riedling, Ann Marlow, and Cynthia Houston. Reference Skills for the School Librarian: Tools and Tips, 4th ed., Santa Barbara, Libraries Unlimited, an imprint of ABC CLIO, 2019.
“The Britannica Tradition of Quality.” Encyclopedia Britannica, https://elearn.eb.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Britannica_Library_Brochure.pdf. Accessed 1 April 2023.
What an interesting exploration you took. It is frustrating that you were unable to find more detailed information on the contributors- I am finding that is often the case with reference sources. I think we end up needing to rely on the authority of the publisher. It is also interesting that frequent revisions seem to lead to less bias - I wonder how enclopaedias approach a range of perspectives on a given topic or if the lack of information on more divisive topics will be addressed in the future.
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