Day 1:
I created my Wikipedia account,began exploring the website. I never really knew how Wikipedia worked, I always assumed it was an untrustworthy source because of what previous teachers have advised. I learned that anyone could publish a piece and receive feedback from other users.
Day 2:
Once my account was created, I completed the Wikipedia Adventure Game. Although it was difficult to navigate the Adventure Game, it taught me how to edit other sources, view their history, and navigate Wikipedia overall.
Day 3:
I began navigating the website overall, viewing different articles and deciding on which talk page to analyze. While searching the various articles I couldn’t really find one that caught my attention, until I found “He’s Just Not That Into You”. The talk page had various criticism, negative comments on the article’s structure, and the author’s knowledge of the book. I also realized how gender bias worked, most of the comments were assuming the article was written by a woman, claiming that if a man wrote “He’s Just Not Into You” instead there would’ve been a “better” execution.
Day 4:
I tried to compare two separate articles as well, one on an author named Sarah J. Maas and another well known author, Stephen King. As expected, both authors had highly informative articles published, supported with various facts regarding their career, life, and novels written. I expected there to be belittling comments made for Sarah j. Maas’s source in comparison to Stephen King’s, however, both had comments directed towards improving the piece and highlighting their achievements.
Day 5:
Today I looked through the Red List and tried to decide on which figure to conduct research on. I was surprised by how long the list was and by the amount of categories that were included. I was getting overwhelmed by the huge selection and realized that when clicking on certain pages there were articles missing. After analyzing the Red List, I decided to research Nandita Bakhshi.
Day 6:
I chose Nandita Bakhshi, President and CEO of Bank of the West, because she immediately stood out to me. Bakhshi is a woman of color that secured a high position in a generally male dominated field. Nandita was among the many women that didn’t have a Wikipedia page, although she achieved a great accomplishment in the Californian Bank of the West.
Day 7:
After choosing, Nandita Bakhshi as the figure I’ll research I began reviewing who she was and certain background information. I learned that she climbed her way to the top, she had multiple jobs and attempts to reach the position she currently has. She experienced various failures but ultimately pushed through to secure her goal.
I also choose a women with color. She also had a great accomplishment!!!
I was also overwhelmed at first when I saw how many categories and lists there were. I also chose a woman that secured a high position in a generally male dominated field.
I find it very intriguing that you experienced a clear example of gender bias while viewing an article. It is absurd that there are individuals that believe women are incompetent. As I viewed some articles, I also noticed some traces of gender bias where a lot of individuals would use wording that would excuse some of the controversial actions taken by men, but would not do the same for women.
I never really used Wikipedia until this assignment either! In my high school experience my teachers were always very against it, and now its been a complete 180 experience. I’ve had some difficulty navigating as well, but the Wikipedia Adventure game definitely helped even though several options of it wouldn’t load.
I never really used Wikipedia until this assignment either! In my high school experience my teachers were always very against it, and now its been a complete 180 experience. I’ve had some difficulty navigating as well, but the Adventure game definitely helped even though several options of it wouldn’t load.