Day 1
On my first day, I created my Wikipedia account. Took me 10 min to do so which shouldn’t have taken so long as I settled with a plain username.
Day 2
On my second day, I started the Wikipedia Adventure game. The game could use some re-work as clicking certain prompts does nothing and this type of confusion may cause people to lose interest (I was assigned to do so). I, in the end, gave up and resorted to watching a video on editing Wikipedia particles and learning some features by myself.
Day 3
On my third day, I’ve decided to finally look through the Red List index and find who I’ll be researching. I first decided to go with one based on my interests being soccer, rock music, or anything related to STEM. My first pick was a Mexican female soccer player but decided that it may not be the best option as there’s limited information on her (that’s almost for everyone on the red list). I looked through various others and decided on one who is a journalist. That said, she does have a Wikipedia page here in Spanish, so I may decide to switch her out once I ask my question, most likely to a soccer player, as now I do want a challenge.
Day 4
After long consideration, I decided to go back into researching a woman who is a professional soccer player, Fatima Servin. It may be challenging however as she seems to have started her professional career with ‘Club de Fútbol Monterrey Femenil. I ditched the journalist as she already has a Wikipedia article in Spanish which can be easily translated into English. However, since translation isn’t 100% perfect, maybe that’s why people refrain from creating an article for that journalist in English.
Day 5
I’ve spent a good 20 minutes trying to look for any signs of gender bias in the ‘view history’ tab on various Wikipedia articles ranging from history-based to soccer-based. The only eye-catching thing I found was a user correcting another in a not-so-respectful manner, “Wikipedia says it is not a link sister”. Although the user may not have meant it disrespectfully, addressing a stranger as a ‘sister’ should not be permitted as they know nothing about them. Perhaps the way I’m viewing it may be harsh but there could’ve been other ways to correct her without calling said user ‘sister’.
Day 6
After scrolling through various articles about women footballers and men, I noticed that women footballers tend to have longer articles going into great detail on their yearly seasons such as what they’ve accomplished compared to men’s who most of their articles don’t go much in detail into their professional seasons. I’ll re-read the Wikipedia gender bias article and find an explanation for this using the links provided at the bottom of the page.
Day 7
I have started to organize my thoughts into a doc, as well as the information gathered. I plan to start on my essay but will keep on researching if necessary. Also, I’ve uncovered more information of Fatima Servin, stumbling across a video interview.
It took me a while to come up with a username as well. It’s also crazy how users can address each other informally on the site.
It’s crazy how it only took 20 mins to spot gender bias. That could be a indicator that theres a lot throughout the website.