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.

Etherpad

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 vaccines and herd immunity.

While Wikipedia is not meant to provide medical advice, editors know Wikipedia entries often top search results. Wikipedians have devoted attention to developing robust guidelines (WP:MEDRS) to aid collaborative editing on biomedical topics.

This talk addresses skepticism and credibility with a pedagogy for information seekers in a way that fully considers how Wikipedia is 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, pseudoscience/fringe theories, supplements, and articles in women’s health) to foster critical information literacy about health and medical topics.

In addition, the talk will present an overview of the OCLC Wikipedia + Libraries: Health and Medical Information fall course, an NNLM-sponsored OCLC WebJunction course for public library staff. I developed this curriculum as a Wikipedia consultant in Spring/Fall 2019, a subsection of the course is the basis of this talk. I wish to note my viewpoints are my own and do not represent OCLC or NNLM.

Course: https://www.webjunction.org/news/webjunction/course-wikipedia-health-and-medical-information.html

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:

Monika M Sengul-Jones

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!