The Struggle of Small and Non-Western Wikipedia Editions 

Heiko Wiggers
Wake Forest University

Abstract

The online encyclopedia Wikipedia has become one of the most influential Internet platforms on the World Wide Web and is currently the sixth-most visited website overall. For smaller languages, creating their own Wikipedia editions can constitute a tremendous boost to their general online presence. This paper investigates whether Wikipedia’s internal structure and culture is really inclusive in its treatment and representation of minority, endangered, regional, and non-Western languages. The paper argues that Wikipedia and, indeed, the Internet itself favor Western, mainstream languages and content and thus make it almost impossible for smaller languages to achieve a meaningful online presence.

 

Proceedings of the 4th Annual Linguistics Conference at UGA: 66–86.

Published June 3, 2018

 

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