ASI21577.tex 14/6/2011 16: 39 Page 1 Cultural Bias in Wikipedia Content on Famous Persons Ewa S. Callahan Department of Film, Video, and Interactive Media, School of Communications, Quinnipiac University, 275 Mt. Carmel Avenue, Hamden, CT 06518-1908. E-mail:
[email protected] Susan C. Herring School of Library and Information Science, Indiana University, Bloomington, 1320 E. 10th St., Bloomington, IN 47405-3907. E-mail:
[email protected] Wikipedia advocates a strict “neutral point of view” This issue comes to the fore when one considers (NPOV) policy. However, although originally a U.S-based, that Wikipedia, although originally a U.S-based, English- English-language phenomenon, the online, user-created language phenomenon, now has versions—or “editions,” as encyclopedia now has versions in many languages. This study examines the extent to which content and perspec- they are called on Wikipedia—in many languages, with con- tives vary across cultures by comparing articles about tent and perspectives that can be expected to vary across famous persons in the Polish and English editions of cultures. With regard to coverage of persons in different Wikipedia.The results of quantitative and qualitative con- language versions, Kolbitsch and Maurer (2006) claim that tent analyses reveal systematic differences related to Wikipedia “emphasises ‘local heroes”’ and thus “distorts the different cultures, histories, and values of Poland and the United States; at the same time, a U.S./English- reality and creates an imbalance” (p. 196). However, their language advantage is evident throughout. In conclusion, evidence is anecdotal; empirical research is needed to inves- the implications of these findings for the quality and tigate the question of whether—and if so, to what extent—the objectivity of Wikipedia as a global repository of knowl- cultural biases of a country are reflected in the content of edge are discussed, and recommendations are advanced Wikipedia entries written in the language of that country.