Wikipedia, democracy and local elections in São Paulo: a study of the developing of articles edited during the election campaign in 2012

Abstract

Wikipedia is a collaborative system in which multiple agents can participate by writing or editing articles. Nevertheless, although the encyclopedia’s principles defend the neutrality of the information available in it, the changes made in order to benefit or to harm political actors’ reputation are usual. This article has as main objective to understand how during the campaign to elect the mayor of São Paulo city in 2012 users have accessed articles related to the three leading candidates – Russomanno, Haddad and Serra – and have edited them. We consider the period from 2008 to 2012 as a reference to explore variables such as the page view indices and the number of editions provided by frequent users. It was concluded that the intensification of the political battle during the election period affects the number of access to such articles, their editions, and the nature of the interaction between registered editors.