Submissions:2019/Fringe theories and edit histories: Six tips for critical information literacy on health topics with Wikipedia
This submission has been noted and is pending review for WikiConference North America 2019.
Title:
- Fringe theories and edit histories: Six tips for critical information literacy on health topics with Wikipedia
Theme:
- Reliability of Information
+ Relationship Building & Support
+ Inclusion and Diversity
Type of session:
- Presentation
Abstract:
Searching for information on health or medical topics is the third most popular online activity (Pew Research, 2014). People often seek supplemental or easy-to-read information as well as affective communities to help them cope with anxieties, questions, or concerns about their health, or the health of people they know (Neal and McKenzie 2011).
While the internet is a powerful resource for seekers, not all information is fully accessible on the open web. Meanwhile, fringe theories about health and wellness persist. The recent measles outbreak is evidence of a breakdown in public trust in public health officials about the safety of vaccines and debates about the authority of parents to make choices for their children.
While Wikipedia is not meant to provide medical advice, editors know Wikipedia entries often top the search results; these high page views are reported as barometers of significance. Wikipedians have been devoted attention to developing WP:MEDRS guidelines and diligently improving biomedical information entries to follow (though not all entries are Good or FA class.)
This talk addresses skepticism and credibility with a pedagogy for information seekers that considers Wikipedia as a complex participatory community embedded in a commercial internet ecosystem. Based on research on affective, aesthetic, and social ways that internet users accept as reliable the information they encounter on Wikipedia (see Rowley and Johnson, 2013), this talk presents specific techniques and case studies about topics such as vaccines, supplements, and articles in women’s health that can be used to foster critical information literacy about health and medical information.
In addition, the talk will present an overview, and deepen a portion, of the OCLC Wikipedia + Libraries: Health and Medical Information Literacy fall course, an NNLM-sponsored OCLC WebJunction course for public libraries. I developed this as a Wikipedia consultant in Fall 2019, I wish to note my viewpoints are my own and do not represent OCLC or NNLM.
Sources:
“Health Fact Sheet.” 2013. Internet Project. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewinternet.org/2013/01/15/health-online-2013/. Neal, Diane M, and Pamela J McKenzie. 2011. “Putting the Pieces Together: Endometriosis Blogs, Cognitive Authority, and Collaborative Information Behavior.” Journal of the Medical Library Association : JMLA 99 (2): 127–34. https://doi.org/10.3163/1536-5050.99.2.004. Rowley, Jennifer, and Frances Johnson. 2013. “Understanding Trust Formation in Digital Information Sources: The Case of Wikipedia.” Journal of Information Science 39 (4): 494–508. https://doi.org/10.1177/0165551513477820.
Academic Peer Review option:
- No
Author name:
E-mail address:
- jones.monika@gmail.com
Wikimedia username:
- Shameran81
Affiliated organization(s):
Estimated time:
- 20
Preferred room size:
- 30
Special requests:
- Presentation projector, screen etc.
Have you presented on this topic previously? If yes, where/when?:
- Not yet (will run course on Wikipedia + Libraries: Health and Medical Information in fall 2019.
If your submission is not accepted, would you be open to presenting your topic in another part of the program? (e.g. lightning talk or unconference session)
- Perhaps!