ABSTRACT

This paper focuses on the potential societal function of Wikipedia beyond serving as an encyclopedia. That is, it assesses both theoretically and empirically whether talk pages (TP) – Wikipedia discussion sites that accompany the encyclopedic entries and provide spaces for debates among Wikipedia editors – may function as transnational public spheres. Despite the increasing number of studies on citizen engagement and participation in the age of social media, Wikipedia as an example of the participatory internet has received little research attention in this regard. This study redresses this research gap in two steps. Drawing on Habermas’ concept of the public sphere and Fraser's and Eriksen's modifications thereof, Wikipedia's – specifically the TPs’ – modus operandi is explored to evaluate whether TPs may serve as spaces for transnational political opinion formation. This theoretical exploration is complemented with an empirical assessment of a TP dedicated to the EU. The case study addresses if/to what degree Wikipedia editors have appropriated the TP to function as a transnational public sphere. Findings indicate that Wikipedia TPs can – and do – serve as general transnational public spheres.

摘要

本文重点关注维基百科在作为百科全书之外的潜在社会功能。也就是说，它从理论上和经验上评估谈话页面（TP）——伴随百科全书条目并为维基百科编辑提供辩论空间的维基百科讨论网站——是否可以作为跨国公共领域发挥作用。尽管关于公民参与和参与社交媒体时代的研究越来越多，但维基百科作为参与性互联网的一个例子，在这方面几乎没有受到研究关注。本研究分两步弥补了这一研究空白。借鉴哈贝马斯的公共领域概念以及弗雷泽和埃里克森的修改，维基百科' s - 特别是 TPs 的 - 作案方式被探索以评估 TPs 是否可以作为跨国政治舆论形成的空间。这一理论探索与对欧盟专用 TP 的实证评估相辅相成。案例研究解决了维基百科编辑是否/在何种程度上将 TP 用作跨国公共领域。调查结果表明，维基百科 TP 可以——而且确实——作为一般的跨国公共领域。