Dataharvest 2024 - the European Investigative Journalism Conference

Wikipedia is a monopoly - not as unpleasant as Google, Apple, Facebook or Amazon, because Wikipedia is not a profit-driven company. But it is a monopoly nonetheless, as other encyclopaedias are no longer on the market. Wikipedia is also being misused. Most users only read the articles on it without reflecting on the fact that although Wikipedia authors remain anonymous, they do have their own interests. The "free encyclopaedia" is regularly the target of PR campaigns and information warfare. Add to this the fact that Wikipedia is being used too much: it is one of the leading online media outlets, without this weakness being sufficiently known or highlighted. Meanwhile - Wikipedia is also used too little! It is a very useful research tool that can be far superior to search engines, depending, of course, on the research questions and the skills of the researcher. It is the only major research tool that works semantically rather than algorithmically. In this session, we will examine Wikipedia's weaknesses and its strengths as a research tool.