Black Lives Matter in Wikipedia: Collaboration and Collective Memory around Online Social Movements

TL;DR

This study examines how Wikipedia users collaboratively document, update, and reframe information related to the Black Lives Matter movement, revealing patterns of collective memory and action in online knowledge systems.

Contribution

It provides new insights into Wikipedia's role in shaping collective memory and supporting social movements through collaborative editing and dynamic content updates.

Findings

Wikipedia documents and connects historical and current events.

Collaborative efforts support coverage of new social movement events.

Content is dynamically re-appraised after new developments.

Abstract

Social movements use social computing systems to complement offline mobilizations, but prior literature has focused almost exclusively on movement actors' use of social media. In this paper, we analyze participation and attention to topics connected with the Black Lives Matter movement in the English language version of Wikipedia between 2014 and 2016. Our results point to the use of Wikipedia to (1) intensively document and connect historical and contemporary events, (2) collaboratively migrate activity to support coverage of new events, and (3) dynamically re-appraise pre-existing knowledge in the aftermath of new events. These findings reveal patterns of behavior that complement theories of collective memory and collective action and help explain how social computing systems can encode and retrieve knowledge about social movements as they unfold.