The Prominence of On-Going Wars — Israeli-Palestine Conflict
The production of information on current events in Wikipedia is a dynamic and collaborative process that reflects the platform’s commitment to providing up-to-date, reliable, and neutral content to its global audience. Wikipedia, one of the world’s largest and most widely accessed online encyclopedias, serves as a valuable resource for those seeking information about current events, news, and developments from around the world.
In terms of current events, I will be exploring one of the most significant ongoing conflicts which is the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict to see the development of data and when it started. The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict is a deeply rooted dispute marked by a complex history. From an article provided by World101, the conflict “dates back more than a century, with flashpoints building from the United Nations’ 1947 initial UN Partition Plan to the 1973 Yom Kippur War, to the recent Israel-Hamas war sparked in October 2023.” This enduring struggle not only shapes the landscape of the Middle East but also resonates globally with people across the world as well.
Data
For this analysis, I will mainly be using Wikipedia data from articles related to the conflict such as the page itself to the conflict and the countries involved as well. I will look into the revision size of the conflict article along with the page views among the three articles I mentioned before. I am interested in how long this ongoing conflict has been lasting and how its emergence on the news encouraged people to research more about it through websites such as Wikipedia.
Findings
Starting with the article on the Israeli-Palestine Conflict from Wikipedia, we can see that there has been a steady growth in the article length over the years. The “size” of an article is the length of all its markup (text, formatting, images, citations, etc.) in bytes. The collaborative nature of Wikipedia, with its diverse community of editors from around the world, allows for the constant updating and expansion of articles related to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. As events unfold and new perspectives emerge, editors on the site work to ensure that the articles remain up-to-date, well-sourced, and balanced. This commitment to providing comprehensive and accurate coverage reinforces Wikipedia’s role as a vital resource for those seeking a deeper understanding of the ongoing complexities of this enduring conflict.
The conflicts between Israelis and Palestinians started to gain more widespread recognition through multiple factors such as media coverage and globalization. Because of the development of technology and global awareness, people are able to use the Internet to learn more about these types of conflicts happening and provide information online based on what they have heard or seen.
The three graphs above show the total page views on Wikipedia for the articles on both countries, Israel and Palestine, along with the conflict itself. We can see that there were spikes in views on all three articles when a massive conflict between the two countries happened. In this case, the views increased in 2021 and 2023. The suffering and displacement of civilians, coupled with the tragic human toll, evoke empathy and concern from individuals worldwide, driving them to seek information, take action, or engage in advocacy efforts. In times of crisis, the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict becomes an example of broader global issues, drawing people’s attention and prompting them to explore the complexities of this enduring and impactful conflict.
What is interesting, however, is the decrease in page views on the Palestine article from 2017–2022 and a smaller increase in 2023 compared to the other two articles. A possible reason for this is people may lean towards learning more about Israel and their cause in the conflict because they may have more media coverage, making them a more powerful and established country compared to Palestine which is lesser known to people globally. Also, the Palestinian side of the conflict is characterized by political fragmentation, governance challenges, and regional divisions among factions like Fatah and Hamas. This complexity can sometimes lead to less unified representation and a lower international profile as well.
Conclusion
The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict is a subject of enduring global interest, with Wikipedia serving as a dynamic platform for documenting its history and developments. The increased awareness of the conflict is driven by factors such as media coverage, globalization, and the Internet, enabling people to access information and contribute to the discourse and increasing the ‘size’ of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict article. The page views demonstrate the heightened interest during times of conflict, with 2021 and 2023 marked by significant spikes. Ultimately, conflicts like this remain a multifaceted issue, with users online continuing to understand and address its complexities by actively engaging with the wealth of information and perspectives available on Wikipedia.
