Crowdsourcing Knowledge Interdiscursive Flows from Wikipedia into Scholarly Research
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3384/cu.2000.1525.146609Keywords:
Wikipedia, collective intelligence, academia, encyclopaedias, citationsAbstract
Information increasingly flows from smart online knowledge systems, based on ‘collective intelligence’, and to the more traditional form of knowledge production that takes place within academia. Looking specifically at the case of Wikipedia, and at how it is employed in scholarly research, this study contributes new knowledge about the potential role of user-generated information in science and innovation. This is done using a dataset collected from the Scopus research database, which is processed with a combination of bibliometric techniques and qualitative analysis. Results show that there has been a significant increase in the use of Wikipedia as a reference within all areas of science and scholarship. Wikipedia is used to a larger extent within areas like Computer Science, Mathematics, Social Sciences and Arts and Humanities, than in Natural Sciences, Medicine and Psychology. Wikipedia is used as a source for a variety of knowledge and information as a replacement for traditional reference works. A thematic qualitative analysis showed that Wikipedia knowledge is recontextualised in different ways when it is incorporated into scholarly discourse. In general, one can identify two forms of framing where one is unmodalised, and the other is modalised. The unmodalised uses include referring to Wikipedia as a complement or example, as a repository, and as an unproblematic source of information. The modalised use is characterised by the invocation of various markers that emphasise – in different ways – that Wikipedia can not be automatically trusted. It has not yet achieved full legitimacy as a source.
References
Alexa (2014): ALEXA Top 500 global Sites, http://www.alexa.com/topsites, (accessed 13 January 2014).
Bachtin, Michail (1981): The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays, Austin: University of Texas Press.
Bachtin, Michail (1986): Speech Genres and Other Late Essays, Austin: University of Texas Press.
Bell, Ann (2009): Exploring Web 2.0: Second Generation Internet Tools: Blogs, Podcasts, Wikis, Networking, Virtual Worlds, and More, Georgetown: Katy Crossing Press.
Benkler, Yochai (2006): The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom, New Haven: Yale University Press.
Bernstein, Basil (1990): Class, Codes and Control. Vol. 4, The Structuring of Pedagogic Discourse, London: Routledge. DOI: 10.4324/9780203011263
Biddix, J. Patrick, Chung Joo Chung & Han Woo Park (2011): ‘Convenience or Credibility? A Study of College Student Online Research Behaviors’, The Internet and Higher Education, 14:3, 175-182. DOI: 10.1016/j.iheduc.2011.01.003
Bjerke, Flemming (2008): ‘Interdiscursivity and Ideology’, unpublished manuscript, Roskilde University.
Braun, Virginia & Victoria Clarke (2006): ‘Using Thematic Analysis in Psychology’, Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3:1, 77-101. DOI: 10.1191/1478088706qp063oa
Bruns, Axel (2008): Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life and Beyond: From Production to Produsage, New York: Peter Lang.
Fairclough, Norman (2003): Analysing Discourse: Textual Analysis for Social Research, New York: Routledge.
Fallis, Don (2008): ‘Toward an Epistemology of Wikipedia’, Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 59:10, 1662-1674.
Flanagin, Andrew J. & Miriam J. Metzger (2011): ‘From Encyclopaedia Britannica to Wikipedia’, Information, Communication & Society,14:3, 355-374. DOI: 10.1080/1369118X.2010.542823
Francke, Helena, & Sundin, Olof (2012): ‘Negotiating the Role of Sources: Educators' onceptions of Credibility in Participatory Media’, Library & Information Science Research, 34:3, 169-175. DOI: 10.1016/j.lisr.2011.12.004
Gee, James Paul (2005): ‘Semiotic Social Spaces and Affinity Spaces: From the Age of Mythology to Today's Schools’, David Barton & Karin Tusting (eds): Beyond Communities of Practice: Language, Power and Social Context, New York: Cambridge University Press, 214-232.
Graham, Mark (2011) ‘Wiki Space: Palimpsests and the Politics of Exclusion’, Geert Lovink & Nathaniel Tkacz (eds): Critical Point of View: A Wikipedia Reader, Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures, 269-282.
Halliday, Michael. A., & Christian M. Matthiessen (2004): An Introduction to Functional Grammar, London: Arnold.
Hodge, Bob & Gunther R. Kress (1988): Social Semiotics, Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.
Jenkins, Henry (2006): Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide, New York: New York University Press.
Jones, Quentin (1997): ‘Virtual Communities, Virtual Settlements & Cyber-Archaeology: A Theoretical Outline’, Journal of Computer Mediated Communication, 3:3, 35-49.
Kimmerle, Joachim, Johannes Moskaliuk, Andreas Harrer, & Ulrike Cress (2010): ‘Visualizing Co-Evolution of Individual and Collective Knowledge’, Information, Communication & Society, 13:8, 1099-1121. DOI: 10.1080/13691180903521547
Kittur, Anniket, Bongwon Suh, Bryan A. Pendleton, & Ed H. Chi (2007): He Says, She Says: Conflict and Coordination in Wikipedia: http://www-users.cs.umn.edu/~echi/papers/2007-CHI/2007-Wikipedia-coordination-PARC-CHI2007.pdf, (accessed 13 January 2014).
Kristeva, Julia (1980): Desire in Language: A Semiotic Approach to Literature and Art, New York: Columbia University Press.
Laclau, Ernesto & Chantal Mouffe (1985): Hegemony and Socialist Strategy, London: Verso.
Lange, Patricia (2008): ‘Publicly Private and Privately Public: Social Networking on YouTube’, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 13:1, 361-380. DOI: 10.1111/j.1083-6101.2007.00400.x
Langlois, Ganaele, & Elmer, Greg (2009): ‘Wikipedia Leeches? The Promotion of Traffic through a Collaborative Web Format’, New Media & Society, 11:5, 773-794. DOI: 10.1177/1461444809105351
Latour, Bruno (1987): Science in Action: How to Follow Scientists and Engineers through Society, Cambridge, MA.: Harvard Univ. Press.
Leech, Geoffrey N. & Mick Short (2007): Style in Fiction: A Linguistic Introduction to English Fictional Prose, Harlow: Longman.
Lévy, Pierre (1999): Collective Intelligence: Mankind's Emerging World in Cyberspace, Cambridge, MA: Perseus Books.
Lovink, Geert & Nathaniel Tkacz (2011): Critical Point of View: A Wikipedia Reader, Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures.
Lovink, Geert (2002): Dark Fiber: Tracking Critical Internet Culture, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Madden, Mary, & Fox, Susannah (2006): ‘Riding the Waves of “Web 2.0.”’, Pew Internet and American Life Project website: http://www.pewinternet.org/~/media/Files/Reports/2006/PIP_Web_2.0.pdf.pdf, (accessed 13 January 2014).
Niederer, Sabine & José van Dijck (2010): “Wisdom of the Crowd or Technicity of Content? Wikipedia as a Sociotechnical System”, New Media & Society, 12:8, 1368-1387. DOI: 10.1177/1461444810365297
O'Neil, Mathieu (2011): ‘Wikipedia and Authority’, Geert Lovink & Nathaniel Tkacz (eds): Critical Point of View: A Wikipedia Reader, Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures, 309-324.
Péladeau, Normand (2003): WordStat: Content Analysis Module for SIMSTAT, Montreal, Canada: Provalis Research.
Rheingold, Howard (1994): The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier, London: Secker & Warburg.
Rosenzweig, Roy (2006): ‘Can History be Open Source? Wikipedia and the Future of the Past’, The Journal of American History, 93:1, 117-146. DOI: 10.2307/4486062
Rouse, Roger (1991): ‘Mexican Migration and the Social Space of Postmodernism’, Diaspora, 1:1, 8-24. DOI: 10.1353/dsp.1991.0011
Shirky, Clay (2008): Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing without Organizations, New York: Penguin Press.
Sumi, Róbert, Taha Yasseri, András Rung, András Kornai, & János Kertész (2011): ‘Edit Wars in Wikipedia’, 2011 IEEE International Conference on Social Computing/IEEE International Conference on Privacy, Security, Risk and Trust (Socialcom ’11), Los Alamitos, CA., Washington, DC: IEEE Computer Society, 724–727.
Surowiecki, James (2004): The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many are Smarter than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economics, Society and Nations, London: Little, Brown & Co.
Toffler, Alvin (1980): The Third Wave, London: Collins.
Varnelis, Kazys (2008): Networked Publics, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. DOI: 10.7551/mitpress/9780262220859.001.0001
Wenger, Etienne (1998): Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511803932
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2014 Lindgren
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.
Copyright for all manuscripts rests with the author(s). The editors reserve the right to edit manuscripts. Contributors are responsible for acquiring all permissions from the copyright owners for the use of quotations, illustrations, tables, etc. Each author must, before final publication fill, in a publishing agreement provided by LiU E-Press.
Since 2021 Culture Unbound uses a Creative Commons: Attribution license for new articles, which allows users to distribute the work and to reform or build upon it without the author's permission. Full reference to the author must be given. For older articles please see each article landing page.
