Approached at Whole Foods on Sunday by a very personable woman handing out homeopathic samples for leg pain, my friend Deborah Warcken asked the woman if she knew how homeopathy worked? When the woman answered in the negative, Deborah handed the woman this card. I received these from Jay Diamond at SkeptiCal and had just given one to Deborah 30 minutes earlier, at a skeptics meetup.
The link takes you to a page with videos a plenty. One I hadn't seen before was from CBC News out of Canada. What a great job reporter Erica Johnson did in this investigation. She seemed really concerned that the mother wasn't vaccinating her child, or should I say not vaccinating with real medicine. Also Johnson seemed almost as sickened as I was to listen to a homeopath tell her that she could cure Stage I breast cancer in 15 days just by boosting the immune system. In the case of Johnson "high five" for great reporting!
Anyway these are two great videos (part one and two) mentioned is CFI Vancouver which also has a mass overdose in front of an emergency room, there are some great lines like "even snake oil has real ingredients in it".
So I had already made a few edits to the homeopathy page. I can't remember but I think I've added a lot of the activism citations, in the last paragraph (hopefully it is still there when your reading this) is my newest addition using the CBC videos.
This blog tackles many elements of editing Wikipedia for skeptical content. Not just where to edit, and how to edit, but I think its real important to try and see if we are seeing results from the work we are doing. We can see if hits increase, but can't tell if minds are changed. So as this is the very last days of June, I'm going to not release this blog for a month and see if there is a significant increase in the hit count for Erica Johnson and CBC News's Wikipedia pages. I'm also going to look at the hit counts for the two videos I linked to on YouTube.
Sorry I can't release this blog as it is written (June 26, 2012), because I know you all will travel over there and look at those pages and throw off the numbers. The edits I made on the homeopathy page are waaaaaay down at the bottom of the page, no idea if people are getting that far in their reading. I suppose I will know in a month.
NOTE: This is an unscientific study, there are few controls.
------------------------
June 26, 2012
CBC Marketplace - Homeopathy: Cure or Con? Part 2 of 2 is at 14,479 views
CBC Marketplace - Homeopathy: Cure or Con? Part 1 of 2 at 25,989 views
Erica Johnson Wikipedia stats trends about 17 hits a day
CBC News Wikipedia stats trends about 121 hits a day
------------------------
The edits still remain on the near bottom of Homeopathy's page.
August 1, 2012
CBC Marketplace - Homeopathy: Cure or Con? Part 1 of 2 at 26,403
CBC Marketplace - Homeopathy: Cure or Con? Part 2 of 2 at 14,637
Erica Johnson Wikipedia stats for July 2012 - about 14 hits a day
CBC News Wikipedia stats for July 2012 - about 109 hits a day.
--------------------------
So it looks like there was no major hit increase in the two target hyperlinked pages, in fact their numbers dropped. And the YouTube videos did increase somewhat, but no idea if that was because of the Wikipedia citation or for other reasons. Another thing I might mention, the two videos are just part one and two of the longer CBC News program. I was completely engaged by the reporting, and wondering why such a drop-off in hits from Part 1 to Part 2? It seems that only 50% of people watching the first video also watched the second video. Many questions and possibilities.
Seems discouraging. A page like homeopathy is receiving over 100K hits each month. You would think that maybe a percentage is following up on these links and reading all the citations.
I think what I learned is that hits to a page do not necessarily translate into reading a page thoroughly. Getting your point across in the lede and first couple paragraphs is paramount. Of course having skeptical references on pages is important, but fighting over citations on a well-trafficked page like this when the reference is so far to the bottom is probably not well spent time.
On the other hand, CBC News, and Erick Johnson now have homeopathy listed on their "what links here" tab. This only makes their pages stronger in the eyes of other Wikipedia editors. A page is considered an orphan if nothing links to it.
The "What links here" area is on the far left side of all Wikipedia pages. Check it out on your favorite pages.
Want to note that I recognize some of the CFI group. A shout out to Fred Bremmer (sans Dave the Skeptical Raisin) from Vancouver and Josh Rosenau from the San Francisco area.
Additional note - Erika Johnson's WP page is a stub.
I'm always looking for people willing to help out with this project. Please contact me at susangerbic@yahoo.com if you would like to help out.
The link takes you to a page with videos a plenty. One I hadn't seen before was from CBC News out of Canada. What a great job reporter Erica Johnson did in this investigation. She seemed really concerned that the mother wasn't vaccinating her child, or should I say not vaccinating with real medicine. Also Johnson seemed almost as sickened as I was to listen to a homeopath tell her that she could cure Stage I breast cancer in 15 days just by boosting the immune system. In the case of Johnson "high five" for great reporting!
Anyway these are two great videos (part one and two) mentioned is CFI Vancouver which also has a mass overdose in front of an emergency room, there are some great lines like "even snake oil has real ingredients in it".
So I had already made a few edits to the homeopathy page. I can't remember but I think I've added a lot of the activism citations, in the last paragraph (hopefully it is still there when your reading this) is my newest addition using the CBC videos.
This blog tackles many elements of editing Wikipedia for skeptical content. Not just where to edit, and how to edit, but I think its real important to try and see if we are seeing results from the work we are doing. We can see if hits increase, but can't tell if minds are changed. So as this is the very last days of June, I'm going to not release this blog for a month and see if there is a significant increase in the hit count for Erica Johnson and CBC News's Wikipedia pages. I'm also going to look at the hit counts for the two videos I linked to on YouTube.
Sorry I can't release this blog as it is written (June 26, 2012), because I know you all will travel over there and look at those pages and throw off the numbers. The edits I made on the homeopathy page are waaaaaay down at the bottom of the page, no idea if people are getting that far in their reading. I suppose I will know in a month.
NOTE: This is an unscientific study, there are few controls.
------------------------
June 26, 2012
CBC Marketplace - Homeopathy: Cure or Con? Part 2 of 2 is at 14,479 views
CBC Marketplace - Homeopathy: Cure or Con? Part 1 of 2 at 25,989 views
Erica Johnson Wikipedia stats trends about 17 hits a day
CBC News Wikipedia stats trends about 121 hits a day
------------------------
The edits still remain on the near bottom of Homeopathy's page.
August 1, 2012
CBC Marketplace - Homeopathy: Cure or Con? Part 1 of 2 at 26,403
CBC Marketplace - Homeopathy: Cure or Con? Part 2 of 2 at 14,637
Erica Johnson Wikipedia stats for July 2012 - about 14 hits a day
CBC News Wikipedia stats for July 2012 - about 109 hits a day.
--------------------------
So it looks like there was no major hit increase in the two target hyperlinked pages, in fact their numbers dropped. And the YouTube videos did increase somewhat, but no idea if that was because of the Wikipedia citation or for other reasons. Another thing I might mention, the two videos are just part one and two of the longer CBC News program. I was completely engaged by the reporting, and wondering why such a drop-off in hits from Part 1 to Part 2? It seems that only 50% of people watching the first video also watched the second video. Many questions and possibilities.
Seems discouraging. A page like homeopathy is receiving over 100K hits each month. You would think that maybe a percentage is following up on these links and reading all the citations.
I think what I learned is that hits to a page do not necessarily translate into reading a page thoroughly. Getting your point across in the lede and first couple paragraphs is paramount. Of course having skeptical references on pages is important, but fighting over citations on a well-trafficked page like this when the reference is so far to the bottom is probably not well spent time.
On the other hand, CBC News, and Erick Johnson now have homeopathy listed on their "what links here" tab. This only makes their pages stronger in the eyes of other Wikipedia editors. A page is considered an orphan if nothing links to it.
The "What links here" area is on the far left side of all Wikipedia pages. Check it out on your favorite pages.
Want to note that I recognize some of the CFI group. A shout out to Fred Bremmer (sans Dave the Skeptical Raisin) from Vancouver and Josh Rosenau from the San Francisco area.
Additional note - Erika Johnson's WP page is a stub.
I'm always looking for people willing to help out with this project. Please contact me at susangerbic@yahoo.com if you would like to help out.
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