A Discursive Perspective on Wikipedia: More than an Encyclopaedia?

Description

This book provides a concise yet comprehensive guide to Wikipedia for researchers and students of linguistics, discourse and communication studies, redressing the gap in research on Wikipedia in these fields and encouraging scholars to explore Wikipedia further as a platform and a medium. Drawing on Herring's situational and medium factors, as well as related developments in (critical) discourse studies, the author studies the online encyclopaedia both theoretically and empirically, examining its origins, production and consumption before turning to a discussion of its societal significance and function(s). This book will be of interest to Wikipedia scholars from a range of disciplines, as well as those with a broader interest in linguistics, discourse studies and the digital humanities.  Contents List of Figures List of Tables 1 Introduction—Contextualisation Matters 1.1 Research on Wikipedia 1.2 Discourse Studies and the Importance of Context 1.2.1 Critical Discourse Studies and Contextualisation 1.2.2 CMDA and CDS in the Digital Age 1.2.3 The Web 2.0, Social Media and Contextualisation 1.2.4 Contextualising Wikipedia and Wikipedia Discourse 1.3 Chapter Overview References 2 Wikipedia’s Architecture and Modus Operandi 2.1 Wikipedia Site Structure 2.1.1 The Article Page 2.1.2 The Talk Page 2.2 Wikipedia’s Modus Operandi 2.2.1 Wikipedia Rules 2.2.1.1 Wikipedia principles—The Five Pillars 2.2.1.2 Wikipedia Content Policies and Guidelines 2.2.1.3 Wikipedia Conduct Policies and Guidelines 2.2.2 Wikipedia Governance 2.2.2.1 Anarchy, Democracy, Aristocracy? 2.2.2.2 Wikipedia-External and Internal Actors and the Editor Hierarchy 2.2.2.3 A Note on Dispute Resolution 2.2.3 Limiting Editing Activity—Banning, Blocking and Protecting References 3 Wikipedia Talk Page Discourse I 3.1 Methods of Analysis 3.2 Moves Analysis 3.2.1 TP Debate Thread-Initial Postings and Threaded Arguments 3.2.1.1 Three Thread-Initial Posting Types 3.2.1.2 The Structure of Debate Threads 3.2.2 TP Debate Thread Response Postings and Their Components 3.2.3 Posting Components 3.2.3.1 Spotlight: Component 4 ‘Argumentation, Evidence, Explanation, Reasoning’ References 4 Wikipedia Talk Page Discourse II 4.1 Corpus Linguistic Analysis 4.1.1 ‘I’, ‘You’ and ‘We’: The Editors and the Community 4.1.2 Debating Sources and Wikipedia Policy 4.1.3 Debating Article Editing 4.2 Wikipedia’s Modus Operandi and Wikipedia Discourse References 5 Wikipedia’s Position and Function in Society 5.1 Wikipedia Consumers and Producers 5.1.1 Wikipedia’s Reach and Readership 5.1.2 Wikipedia’s Contributors—‘Wikipedians’ 5.2 Wikipedia—More Than an Encyclopaedia? 5.2.1 The Public Sphere 5.2.2 Wikipedia’s Function as a Transnational Public Sphere 5.2.2.1 Participation and Access 5.2.2.2 Rational Discourse 5.2.2.3 A General Transnational Public Sphere References 6 Summary and Outlook References Index