Political Advertising on the Wikipedia Market Place of Information

Göbel, Sascha, and Simon Munzert. 2017. Political Advertising on the Wikipedia Marketplace of Information. Social Science Computer Review

24 Pages Posted: 25 Jan 2016 Last revised: 15 Sep 2017

See all articles by Sascha Göbel

Sascha Göbel

University of Konstanz

Simon Munzert

University of Mannheim - Mannheim Centre for European Social Research (MZES)

Date Written: April 4, 2016

Abstract

We point to a popular yet under-researched platform of political information, the online encyclopedia Wikipedia. Considering the supply side of the marketplace, we argue that personal biographies on the platform are an attractive medium for politicians to enhance their appearance. We trace changes to biographies coming from the parliament by using data that cover the entire edit histories for biographies on all German MPs for the three last legislative periods. Our findings show editing of personal biographies to be a persistent phenomenon. Moreover, type, timing, and driving factors of editing behavior highlight the importance politicians’ attribute to Wikipedia for pursuing reelection. Our results speak to the domains of political professionalization, voting behavior and the general measurement of communicative patterns.

Keywords: Wikipedia, online advertising, digital campaigning, political communication, vote seeking

Suggested Citation

Göbel, Sascha and Munzert, Simon, Political Advertising on the Wikipedia Market Place of Information (April 4, 2016). Göbel, Sascha, and Simon Munzert. 2017. Political Advertising on the Wikipedia Marketplace of Information. Social Science Computer Review , Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2720141 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2720141

Sascha Göbel

University of Konstanz ( email )

Fach D-144
Universitätsstraße 10
Konstanz, D-78457
Germany

Simon Munzert (Contact Author)

University of Mannheim - Mannheim Centre for European Social Research (MZES) ( email )

D-68131 Mannheim
Germany

Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?

Paper statistics

Downloads
91
Abstract Views
1,207
Rank
358,466
PlumX Metrics