Wikipedia coverage of death

Last updated

Sydwhunte was the first to update the Elizabeth II Wikipedia article following her death. Screenshot of Elizabeth II Wikipedia article.jpg
Sydwhunte was the first to update the Elizabeth II Wikipedia article following her death.

Editors of the online encyclopedia Wikipedia tend to update Wikipedia articles with information about deaths quickly after people die. [3] [4] Web developer and Wikipedia editor Hay Kranen coined the term "deaditor" to refer to these editors. [5] Articles about people often have large spikes in views just after they die. For example, the article about designer Kate Spade averaged 2,117 views in 48-hour periods before her death. In the 48 hours after her death, it got 3,417,416, an increase of 161,427%. [6] [7] [8]

Media have remarked on the site's quick updates after the deaths of people such as Michael Jackson, [9] Elizabeth II, [5] [10] [11] and Henry Kissinger. [12] [13]

In January 2009, in response to false death reports on the English Wikipedia articles about Robert Byrd and Edward Kennedy, the site's co-founder Jimmy Wales proposed that pages be moderated using Flagged Revisions, a form of protection under which certain revisions of a protected page must be accepted by an experienced editor before becoming visible to readers. [14] The feature, known as "pending changes" on English Wikipedia, was first implemented in 2010, though by 2021 it was not widely used on biographies of living people and was unmaintained. [15] [16]

When a subject of a biography dies of a disease, its progress may also be described. [17] [18]

Related Research Articles

<i>Encyclopædia Britannica</i> General knowledge encyclopaedia since 1768

The Encyclopædia Britannica is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It has been published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. since 1768, although the company has changed ownership seven times. The encyclopaedia is maintained by about 100 full-time editors and more than 4,000 contributors. The 2010 version of the 15th edition, which spans 32 volumes and 32,640 pages, was the last printed edition. Since 2016, it has been published exclusively as an online encyclopaedia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Kissinger</span> American politician and diplomat (1923–2023)

Henry Alfred Kissinger was an American diplomat, political scientist, geopolitical consultant, and politician who served as the United States secretary of state and national security advisor in the presidential administrations of Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford between 1969 and 1977.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Wikipedia</span>

Wikipedia, a free-content online encyclopedia written and maintained by a community of volunteers known as Wikipedians, began with its first edit on 15 January 2001, two days after the domain was registered. It grew out of Nupedia, a more structured free encyclopedia, as a way to allow easier and faster drafting of articles and translations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wiki</span> Type of website that visitors can edit

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">English Wikipedia</span> English-language edition of Wikipedia

The English Wikipedia is the primary English-language edition of Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia. It was created by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger on January 15, 2001, as Wikipedia's first edition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Obituary</span> Short biography of someone who recently died

An obituary is an article about a recently deceased person. Newspapers often publish obituaries as news articles. Although obituaries tend to focus on positive aspects of the subject's life, this is not always the case. According to Nigel Farndale, the Obituaries Editor of The Times: "Obits should be life affirming rather than gloomy, but they should also be opinionated, leaving the reader with a strong sense of whether the subject lived a good life or bad; whether they were right or wrong in the handling of their public affairs."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wikinews</span> Free-content news wiki; project of the Wikimedia Foundation

Wikinews is a free-content news wiki and a project of the Wikimedia Foundation that works through collaborative journalism. Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales has distinguished Wikinews from Wikipedia by saying, "On Wikinews, each story is to be written as a news story as opposed to an encyclopedia article." Wikinews's neutral point of view policy aims to distinguish it from other citizen journalism efforts such as Indymedia and OhmyNews. In contrast to most Wikimedia Foundation projects, Wikinews allows original work in the form of original reporting and interviews. In contrast to newspapers, Wikinews does not permit op-ed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">German Wikipedia</span> German language edition of Wikipedia

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Berry</span> English food writer and television presenter (born 1935)

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elizabeth II</span> Queen of the United Kingdom from 1952 to 2022

Elizabeth II was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states over the course of her lifetime and remained the monarch of 15 realms by the time of her death. Her reign of over 70 years is the longest of any British monarch, the longest of any female monarch, and the second longest verified reign of any monarch of a sovereign state in history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Japanese Wikipedia</span> Japanese-language edition of Wikipedia

The Japanese Wikipedia is the Japanese-language edition of Wikipedia, a free, open-source online encyclopedia. Started on 11 May 2001, the edition attained the 200,000 article mark in April 2006 and the 500,000 article mark in June 2008. As of April 2024, it has over 1,410,000 articles with 13,300 active contributors, ranking fourth behind the English, French and German editions.

Flagged Revisions, also known as FlaggedRevs, is a software extension to the MediaWiki software that allows moderation of edits to wiki pages. It was developed by the Wikimedia Foundation for use on Wikipedia and similar wikis hosted on its servers. The term is also sometimes used for the editorial policies related to operation of that extension when active.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vandalism on Wikipedia</span> Malicious editing of Wikipedia

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Operation London Bridge was the funeral plan for Queen Elizabeth II. The plan included the announcement of her death, the period of official mourning, and the details of her state funeral. The plan was created as early as the 1960s and revised many times in the years before her death in September 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Predictions of the end of Wikipedia</span> Theories that Wikipedia will break down or become obsolete

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Coverage of American politics in Wikipedia is a subject that has received substantial attention from the media. Since its founding in 2001, Wikipedia has provided coverage of five United States presidential elections, and six mid-term elections at the federal level, as well as numerous "off-year" state elections and special elections.

References

  1. Rauwerda, Annie (9 September 2022). "Who the hell updated Queen Elizabeth II's Wikipedia page so quickly?". Input. Archived from the original on 20 October 2022. Retrieved 20 October 2022.
  2. Mannix, Liam (13 September 2022). "Evidence suggests Wikipedia is accurate and reliable. When are we going to start taking it seriously?". The Sydney Morning Herald . Archived from the original on 6 March 2023. Retrieved 20 October 2022.
  3. Harrison, Stephen (16 August 2018). "Meet the People Who Quickly Update Wikipedia Pages When a Celebrity Like Aretha Franklin Dies". Slate Magazine. Archived from the original on 1 November 2022. Retrieved 11 October 2022.
  4. Thomas, Rhys (5 October 2022). "Inside the world of Wikipedia's deaditors". The Face . Archived from the original on 2 February 2023. Retrieved 11 October 2022.
  5. 1 2 McNamee, Kai (15 September 2022). "Fastest 'was' in the West: Inside Wikipedia's race to cover the queen's death". NPR. Archived from the original on 15 January 2023. Retrieved 22 January 2023.
  6. Samora, Russell (August 2018). "Life After Death on Wikipedia". The Pudding. Archived from the original on 23 February 2023. Retrieved 14 January 2023.
  7. Goldenberg, Russell (August 2018). "Life After Death on Wikipedia". The Pudding . Archived from the original on 23 February 2023. Retrieved 11 October 2022.
  8. Rosen, Rebecca J. (6 February 2013). "If You Want Your Wikipedia Page to Get a Ton of Traffic, Die While Performing at the Super Bowl Half-Time Show". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on 27 February 2023. Retrieved 19 December 2022.
  9. Steiner, Thomas; van Hooland, Seth; Summers, Ed (13 May 2013). "MJ no more: Using concurrent wikipedia edit spikes with social network plausibility checks for breaking news detection". Proceedings of the 22nd International Conference on World Wide Web. pp. 791–794. doi:10.1145/2487788.2488049. ISBN   9781450320382. S2CID   15540545.
  10. Lukpat, Alyssa (18 September 2022). "When Queen Elizabeth II Died, Wikipedia's 'Deaditors' Were Ready" . The Wall Street Journal . Archived from the original on 9 October 2022. Retrieved 11 October 2022.
  11. Parsons, Jeff (9 September 2022). "How Wikipedia responded when news of the Queen's death broke". Metro. Archived from the original on 17 December 2022. Retrieved 11 October 2022.
  12. Huggins, Katherine (30 November 2023). "'I'd put that on my resume': Wikipedia editor brags she was 'the girl' who changed 'is' to 'was' on Henry Kissinger's page". The Daily Dot. Archived from the original on 1 December 2023. Retrieved 1 December 2023.
  13. Rose, Janus (30 November 2023). "Wikipedia Editor Who First Noted Henry Kissinger's Death Has Become an 'Instant Legend'". Vice. Archived from the original on 1 December 2023. Retrieved 1 December 2023.
  14. Snyder, Chris (26 January 2009). "Jimmy Wales Pushes For Flagged Revisions After Fake Death Reports". Wired . Archived from the original on 30 December 2012. Retrieved 1 December 2023.
  15. phoebe and HaeB (7 June 2010). ""Pending changes" trial to start on June 14".
  16. Legoktm (31 January 2021). "The people who built Wikipedia, technically".
  17. Mahroum, Naim; Bragazzi, Nicola Luigi; Sharif, Kassem; Gianfredi, Vincenza; Nucci, Daniele; Rosselli, Roberto; Brigo, Francesco; Adawi, Mohammad; Amital, Howard; Watad, Abdulla (June 2018). "Leveraging Google Trends, Twitter, and Wikipedia to Investigate the Impact of a Celebrity's Death From Rheumatoid Arthritis". JCR: Journal of Clinical Rheumatology. 24 (4): 188–192. doi:10.1097/RHU.0000000000000692. PMC   9915341 . PMID   29461342. S2CID   3442166.
  18. Naik, Hiten; Johnson, Maximilian Desmond Dimitri; Johnson, Michael Roger (15 June 2021). "Internet Interest in Colon Cancer Following the Death of Chadwick Boseman: Infoveillance Study". Journal of Medical Internet Research. 23 (6): e27052. doi: 10.2196/27052 . PMC   8277405 .