User:Lucaskim7/sandbox

Article Evaluation

Prior to the training sessions and videos, I expected my work with Wikipedia to be relatively simple and straightforward, however it has become evident that there are many things to consider when working with published articles. For example, the importance of citations and using reliable articles was never clear to me but now I will be sure to cite all articles that I reference and to paraphrase the best I can rather than overusing direct quotations. Furthermore, the technical details of editing a page and making sure that I get the approval from the Wikipedia community is a process that it very new to me. Along with this, I was able to get used to "wiki-linking" with the example of "bold" which was very helpful. I will be sure to get more used to these different aspects of editing articles as well as communicating through the talk page.

When looking at the article "E-Government", an article part of the WikiProject Politics, there a few things I noticed that could be improved. First, there is cite error for the UN E-Government Survey from 2016 that the authors reference. Additionally, there are certain statements made in the article that come across as slightly biased, with no or not enough sources to back up the argument. For example, the article states that "Whilst e-government has traditionally been understood as being centered around the operations of government, e-governance is understood to extend the scope by including citizen engagement and participation in governance. As such, following in line with the OECD definition of e-government, e-governance can be defined as the use of ICTs as a tool to achieve better governance." but fails to cite any source. While this may be a valid opinion, it would be better supported if the author cited a source or had additional information to back it up. Lastly, while the article has an abundance of important information regarding the dynamic world of E-governance, the organization of the actual article makes it slightly difficult to follow at times. There are certain parts, such as the UN e-Government Development Index being immediately followed by "Comparison with e-governance" that makes the article difficult to follow and difficult to establish a cohesive idea.

Talk:E-government

Possible articles to work on

Two possible articles that I identified are Civic technology companies and Civic engagement. Both articles are quite bare in their information in general and the former is stated to "[rely] too much on references to primary sources". Wikipedia recommends that an editor could "improve this by adding secondary or tertiary sources". Immediately, there is an opportunity for me to edit and improve the article, but also outside of Wikipedia's recommendations, I think there can definitely be improvement in the idea of a civic tech company and potentially the history and recent rise in number of companies. With Civic engagement, Wikipedia also states that "this article has multiple issues... this article's tone or style may not reflect the encyclopedic tone used on Wikipedia... the specific problem is: article fails MOS and needs more cited content". As I have some experience with Civic Engagement and voter turnout, I think it's really interesting to see this article have multiple issues. I think Wikipedia gives good recommendations for me if I were to edit the article.

Finalizing my topic - Civic Engagement

After researching more on the different topics I was deciding between, I ultimately chose civic engagement as it was a good balance between my interests and potential for expansion. Immediately, Wikipedia provides recommendations on what to fix in order to make the article sufficient for a better grade. for example, the recommendations state that "the article's tone or style may not reflect the encyclopedic tone used on Wikipedia... this article fails Manual of Style (MOS) and needs more cited content". Evidently, there is room for improvement with given directions which makes editing more straightforward. Outside of this, I intend to expand upon various sections that the article features, such as civic technology and include ideas that were described during lectures from class. Additionally some Heading sections only have one subsection, such as "Local civic engagement" with "Community collaboration" being the only subsection, which gives me a chance to expand on the heading idea.

Finding my sources

Here are my list of potential sources to contribute to the article:

• Pancer, S. Mark. The Psychology of Citizenship and Civic Engagement. United Kingdom, Oxford University Press, 2015.
  • A very relevant and interesting book analyzing the psychology of civic engagement and its power
• Proven, Six. "Guidebook." (2014).
  • A guidebook on practices for effective civic learning provided by the National Center for Learning and Civic Engagement
• Hope E.C., Spencer M.B. (2017) Civic Engagement as an Adaptive Coping Response to Conditions of Inequality: An Application of Phenomenological Variant of Ecological Systems Theory (PVEST). In: Cabrera N., Leyendecker B. (eds) Handbook on Positive Development of Minority Children and Youth. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-43645-6_25
  • A study on combatting inequality in marginalized communities through civic engagement provided by authors from the Department of Psychology of North Carolina State University and the Department of Comparative Human Development from the University of Chicago
• António F. Tavares & Jered B. Carr (2013) So Close, Yet so Far Away? the Effects of City Size, Density and Growth on Local Civic Participation, Journal of Urban Affairs, 35:3, 283-302, DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9906.2012.00638.x
  • A study analyzing the effects of city size, density and growth on local civic participation
• Lie, Malene Paulsen. "Local Newspapers, Facebook and local civic engagement: a study of media use in two Norwegian communities." Nordicom Review 39.2 (2018): 49-62.
  • A journal answering the question: "In what ways do local inhabitants make use of the local press and Facebook in civic engagement, and what importance does the media have in mobilising a wider local public?"
• Tolbert, Charles M., Thomas A. Lyson, and Michael D. Irwin. "Local capitalism, civic engagement, and socioeconomic well-being." Social Forces 77.2 (1998): 401-427.
  • A paper trying to better understand how civic welfare is influenced by local capitalism and civic engagement, which would help expand on the benefits of civic engagement (a currently underdeveloped section)
• Szmigiel-Rawska, Katarzyna, Julita Łukomska, and António F. Tavares. "Social Media Activity and Local Civic Engagement in Poland." Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance. 2018.
  • Paper analyzing social media activity and local civic engagement in Poland (could potentially start a new heading section on civic engagement across the globe)

Drafting my Contributions

In order to begin my contributions to Wikipedia’s “Civic Engagement” page, I must first identify what is missing from its current form. As I’ve stated previously, there are objective holes in the paper that Wikipedia already has provided - the tone or style is not reflective of the expected encyclopedic tone of Wikipedia, the manual of style is not met, and there is not enough citation based on given evidence. Immediately, I can identify issues with the explanation of civic engagement itself. The encyclopedic tone is not evident when previous authors state that “civic engagement… is absolutely ‘instrumental to democracy’”. Similarly, a previous author gives their subjective opinion stating that “an informed voter is beneficial for a democracy and the only way for this to occur is through education”. While I do agree with the sentiments, the manual of style is not met. Throughout the page, there are various instances where previous authors use persuasive writing to present their points, which for the most part, can be phrased in an encyclopedic tone. Another flaw that Wikipedia’s “Writing Better Articles” page describes is the frequency of inappropriate lists. A previous author leaves a long, bulleted list of the different benefits of civic engagement cited directly from a study and does not expand upon it or leave much context. The author copies and pastes the list into the Wikipedia page with no further value added. After looking and reading the source provided, the ICMA’s “How Civic Engagement Transforms Communities” is quite insightful and provides lots of value for the Wikipedia page. I think to give more value to the “Benefits” subsection, there should also be a “Challenges” section that features the various factors the ICMA describes. For example, distrust, role clarification, time all play a role in challenges of civic engagement. Instead of info dumping, as the “Writing Better Articles” page puts it, I will also be expanding upon and providing context for each factor.

• Compared to direct government action, civic engagement will typically take longer for results to show. In the long run, however, the public’s reaction to a government’s decision on policies or laws can result in a faster change compared to the government engaging in lawsuits or ballot initiatives.
• In order for civic engagement to be successful, there must be a layer of transparency and trust between the government and its citizens.

Under the technology heading of the Wikipedia page, I think there is also room for the addition of social media and its role in civic engagement. There are handfuls of studies and journals that focus on the impact that social media has on civic engagement. In a study mentioned in a later section on civic engagement around the world, interviewees from Norway “generally use Facebook to invite people to some form of face-to-face meeting at the beginning of a community engagement - and to facilitate the ongoing engagement of participants”. Further research demonstrates the capabilities of Facebook and other social networks in their enablement of civic participation. In Asia, a study was conducted focusing on the impact that the rise of Internet communication had on social capital. This study concluded that while the Internet’s role is to provide citizens with more opportunities to contact each other, it does not play a role in increasing different measures of social capital such as trust. Furthermore, the study concluded that “social capital developed through voluntary participation in social organization has the greatest effectiveness in promoting all sorts of civic engagement".

Within this same section of technology, I think there are ways to section off certain parts to make it more organized such as breaking it down into: the Internet, Television, Social Media, Social Entrepreneurship. Under social entrepreneurship, I will be looking at hopefully a few instances of where entrepreneurship enables civic engagement and promotes participation from citizens. One such example would be from Eric Gordon and Jessica Philippi, who released a study on their interactive online game for local engagement called Community PlanIt (CPI). The purpose of CPI is to improve civic engagement qualitatively, rather than focusing on increasing the number of citizens getting involved. The study concluded that CPI encourages reflective attitudes and mediates relationships of trust that are needed for functional and continued civic engagement.

Another interesting contribution that I would like to make to the page is a section focusing on civic engagement in countries around the world, utilizing a handful of journals and papers that I have read.

• First, there is Norway with a study on “Local Newspapers, Facebook and Local Civic Engagement” by Malene Paulsen Lie. The study aimed to “[investigate] the ways in which a selection of the inhabitants of two Norwegian communities make use of the local press and Facebook…” and concluded that “both Facebook and the local press play important roles in civic engagement”, illustrating the various mediums that citizens utilize. When looking at the demographics of each medium, this study also saw that the younger demographic strayed from local newspapers and preferred national or international news, while the older demographic prioritized the local newspaper.
• In Poland, social media plays an important role in the level of civic engagement for mayoral elections. A study concluded that “successful engagement in social media accounts is also higher when the mayor operates in an active social media environment”.
• In Australia, a study was conducted, recognizing various forms of civic engagement such as “social protest and collective action, and specific organizations dedicated to lobbying and advocacy”. The study goes on to say that governments in Australia generally prefer to initiate processes of consultation of their own choosing rather than being perceived to be consulting only in response to pressure and social protest”.
• In South East Asia, a study was conducted focusing on civic engagement within mental health services, more specifically in low and middle-income countries (LMICs). In these countries, the study concluded that Civic Engagement interventions can be successfully implemented yet Western models should be adapted in order to better fit with local cultures and values. Furthermore, the communities in these LMICs that face armed conflict, natural disasters, or political suppression find community cohesion to be a common outcome of civic engagement initiatives. Focusing on the mental health impact, civic engagement allowed citizens to develop a better understanding of the problems and equip themselves with the necessary skills to meet the needs of their local mental health problems. The study refers to the 2004 Asian Tsunami crisis, where “trusted community volunteers played a key role in the delivery of much needed mental health services”.
• In China, participatory budgeting experiments, an example of civic empowerment including all members of society, promote a degree of transparency and fairness, as a vast majority of the budgeting takes place at local levels and smaller villages (He). In the next decade, China and the NPC plans to implement more participatory budgeting experiments and an increased amount of participation from citizens. However, the empowerment of local People’s Congresses will remain constrained by the caution of the central leaders and resistance from local governments. In this same way, the government will remain controlling over citizen empowerment.

Lastly, there is significant room for improvement in the final subsection of civic learning. Rather than listing steps and info dumping the U.S Department of Education’s commitment to civic learning, the section should also address the challenges for civic education to provide context. From W. Lance Bennett’s “Young Citizens and New Media”, the challenge of civic education and learning is the integration and adaptation to the more contemporary attitude towards politics, which revolves more around the quality of personal life, social recognition, and self esteem.

Ultimately, it is evident that there are a lot of changes and different ideas to integrate into the “Civic Engagement” Wikipedia page and I strongly believe that I will be able to improve the article overall. Starting with the encyclopedic tone and the lack of MOS, I will go through the article and identify each instance where this occurs. Secondly, there are certain subsections that I feel are too flushed out and I will add journals and studies that align with what these sections were focused on. Lastly, I want to add new sections that focus on a civic engagement around the world as well as newer technologies such as social media and social entrepreneurship. While there are many edits to be made, I believe they all serve a purpose and will benefit the article’s overall presentation.

Peer Editor: Daniel Tom - Hi Lucas, I love how thoughtful and detailed your planned contributions are. I like how you identify stylistic and tonal issues with the current article and provide specific examples of these flaws. Your planned contributions also appear neutral and balanced. I also like how you provide specific examples of countries that benefit from civic engagement. Your sources also appear relevant and reliable. One thing I would change is possibly developing a more concrete 'lead section' that segways into the ideas you will be discussing in the article.

Response to peer reviews

In response to Dalexandertom's peer review, I am extremely grateful that they took the time to review my work and give constructive criticism. I think one of the biggest points that I took away from the peer review is my lack in a lead. I failed to consider that with my new additions, I would need to adjust the lead and form an introductory sentence that concisely describes the topic as they mentioned. Something as simple as "Civic engagement can be found throughout the world and is not limited to a certain size of a community. While the forms of civic engagement may differ, the central purpose of involving the community to address an issue of public concern remains consistent". Furthermore, Dalexandertom's review mentions my lack of pictures and images which would be a simple fix to keep the audience engaged. I am not sure why I initially left out images, but there are many pictures that I can include that could help readers better understand civic engagement around the world. Overall, I am again grateful for the peer review and can definitely start implementing these changes directly to my article.

Similar to Dalexandertom's review, Lindseyjli3's review provides great insight and very useful feedback that I can use to directly improve my article. A similar criticism lies in the lead, or lack thereof. A clear mistake I make in my draft's is that I did not provide full paragraphs to add to the page as I assumed I was to write paragraphs discussing the contributions as opposed to writing them out itself. Nonetheless, I will definitely need to include a lead, similar to one I wrote in the previous paragraph. Another thing that remains consistent is the positive feedback on my changes in the subjectivity of the current state of the article. I think that will be one of my biggest changes along with the global perspective on civic engagement. My main priority with these changes is to bring the focus back into a neutral POV and write in an encyclopedic tone. Lastly, an interesting change that Lindsey proposes is having headings above each section as there is a lot of information being covered. I think this could be a really valuable change that could help not only me, as the author, organize my thoughts, but also provides the reader with an easier time to read and digest the information being provided.

Ultimately, I am grateful for those who took the time to review my work and leave constructive comments. Both of these reviews give me a better sense of where I can improve and also where my edits are strong. A clear addition I need to make is a lead and I have ideas already on how to go through with this. Additionally, adding media and images would help the reader better understand certain sections. Likewise, having more sections and breaking down the information in a more organized manner would also help the reader understand what they are reading and help them digest the load of information.