American Economic Review Vol. 102 No. 3 2012

Is Wikipedia Biased?

Shane Greenstein¹; Feng Zhu²

¹ Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, 2001 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL 60208. · ² Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0808.

Abstract

This study empirically examines whether Wikipedia has a neutral point of view. It develops a method for measuring the slant of 28 thousand articles about US politics. In its earliest years, Wikipedia's political entries lean Democrat on average. The slant diminishes during Wikipedia's decade of experience. This change does not arise primarily from revision of existing articles. Most articles arrive with a slant, and most articles change only mildly from their initial slant. The overall slant changes due to the entry of articles with opposite slants, leading toward neutrality for many topics, not necessarily within specific articles.

DOI

10.1257/aer.102.3.343

Volume

102

Issue

3

Pages

343-348

Language

en

Sources

bibtex:phds-export.bib crossref openalex

Cite

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