Thank you to Risker/Anne for the information about existing and relevant WikiProjects. I
joined the WikiProject on United States Presidential elections.
Also, thanks to Jane for raising those concerns. I made a note of them and noted to
consider and discuss them at the WikiProject.
I do feel US elections and their coverage is an international issue, especially in light
of recent events that threaten democracy and could indirectly affect things like copyright
on the internet. I do share concerns about “social media events” and it would be helpful
to spell out how these could be covered in an encyclopedia when social media is not
considered a reliable source for an article. Add to that a decline in subscriptions to
local newspapers (I believe this is not only a US issue but an international problem) as
well as geoblocking content of national newspapers and you have major issues with updates
to Wikipedia election articles anywhere. I have no idea how to tackle these issues but
have complete confidence in the various election-related WikiProjects so if there’s such a
project on meta maybe they have already joined forces on this.
For anyone interested in these topics, I have started a discussion at the WikiProject’s
talk page on these topics, Group activities and the 2024 Presidential election:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_United_States_pres…
.
The post there broaches ideas to improve encyclopedic coverage of elections and proposes
group tasks of a preparatory nature with respect to future elections:
Hello. I would like to share some ideas with respect to the encyclopedic coverage of the
upcoming 2024 Presidential election and with respect to group activities.
Firstly, we can consider encyclopedia articles about election tactics and strategies and
hyperlinking to these articles from elections’ main articles.
Secondly, hot-button, third-rail, dog-whistle, and wedge issues, and other uncouth
occurrences can be curtailed by enhancing encyclopedic, and subsequently historical,
coverage of these occurrences. Unbiased and unblinking encyclopedic coverage can
contribute to discouraging uncouth events and happenings. This includes coverage of such
events and happenings which occur in the news, on the Web, and on social media. We can
consider encyclopedia articles about election-relevant events and happenings and
hyperlinking to these articles from elections’ main articles.
Thirdly, with respect to group activities, I propose that we could discuss how to improve
the encyclopedic coverage of the 2024 Presidential election in advance. I also propose
that we could, together, design a generic template or prototype of a collection of
encyclopedia articles in advance. That is, we could brainstorm, discuss, sketch, and
revise an interconnected collection of articles about aspects of a generic Presidential
election, establishing their main structures and main outlines, utilizing placeholder
text. As envisioned, such a generic template or prototype would be convenient when
starting the actual encyclopedia articles for the actual election.
Enhancing the encyclopedic coverage of the upcoming 2024 Presidential election would
inspire the improvement of the encyclopedic coverage of other, subsequent elections,
federal, state, and local. I am optimistic about the potential to improve elections by
enhancing the encyclopedic coverage of them here on Wikipedia.
Thank you. I look forward to discussing these ideas with you.
Thanks again for the information, concerns, and discussion. I am looking forward to
contributing at the WikiProject.
Best regards,
Adam