Information flow on COVID-19 over Wikipedia: A case study of 11 languages

Abstract

Wikipedia has been a critical information source during the COVID-19 pandemic. Analyzing how information is created, edited, and viewed on this platform can help gain new insights for risk communication strategies for the next pandemic. Here, we study the content editor and viewer patterns on the COVID-19 related documents on Wikipedia using a near-complete dataset gathered of 11 languages over 238 days in 2020. Based on the analysis of the daily access and edit logs on the identified Wikipedia pages, we discuss how the regional and cultural closeness factors affect information demand and supply.