Cross posted from my blog at: http://ozziesport.com/2012/07/michelle-jennekes-wikipedia-article/
In the continuing brief look at English Wikipedia's coverage of female Australian Olympians, a brief look at a non-Olympian: Michelle Jenneke, a hurdler who did not make the 2012 Olympics.
An article about her http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelle_Jenneke was created on 20 July 2012. Pretty quickly, it was nominated for deletionhttp://topsy.com/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Michelle_Jennekebecause Jenneke was not viewed as notable, or only notable because of her "jiggle" video. Since July 20, her article has had 132,997 views. (First Saudi Arabian female Olympian in contrast? 6,787 viewshttp://stats.grok.se/en/latest/Sarah_Attar.) The deletion nomination had 1,347 viewshttp://stats.grok.se/en/latest/Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Michelle_Jenneke. Lots and lots of page views. Some sexism going on. What is the care factor about this? On Twitter, Jenneke's article had zero linkshttp://topsy.com/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelle_Jenneke, while the deletion nomination had three links on Twitterhttp://topsy.com/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Michelle_Jenneke. (Another fun contrast? Lauren Jackson's Wikipedia article only had one Twitter mention http://topsy.com/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lauren_Jacksonsince the flag bearing news was announced. Page views for Jackson http://stats.grok.se/en/latest90/Lauren_Jackson were less today than what her article had on the day it appeared on Wikipedia's front page.)
My take away from this? Sexism still generates lots of traffic and a fair amount of conversation. It doesn't necessarily translate that success, moving women forward and great personal accomplishments translate into interest and traffic.
Sincerely, Laura Hale