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Article evaluation

The Margaret Betts article on Wikipedia seems to be lacking a lot of information. The article provides information, although minimal, about three of her films, but notably the career section only has two sentences, both of which seem to be in the wrong section and therefore distract from the rest of the article. The article appears to be neutral, but there is not enough information provided in the first place in order to present a bias regardless.

Many aspects of the article are underrepresented, specifically information about Margaret Betts' background and career. The one aspect of the article that seems to be cohesive is the section about her films. It provides titles and descriptions for each of the 3 films that Betts has made.

For the most part, the links to the citations work and the claims seem to be supported by information drawn from the various articles that are cited, but the sources the article is drawn from do not all appear to be unbiased and reliable. The first source listed in the article comes from the Variety magazine, which leans left on the political spectrum. Also, the link for the third citation, thecarrier.com, does not work.

None of the information in the article is out of date, but there is a lot of holes in the article in which information could be added. There are no conversations occurring behind the scenes about how to better represent this article, but it is labeled by Wikipedia as biography of a living person (BLP) so there are certain rules that it has to adhere to.

In class, often we discuss the background of each of the female directors and the predicament of the time in which they grew up and how it shaped their films. In this article, the background section only provides information about her father's relationship with George W. Bush. This piece of information seems useless to the overall purpose of the article, especially since no other information about her parents is provided to supplement that. It also does not explain how that piece of information may have influenced her. There is one sentence that says the themes of her films are largely inspired by the social consciousness she developed through her relationship with Laura Bush, but that seems to be trivial information in an obviously much bigger story that is not provided in this article. There is no insight on her upbringings or family life. There is also no information on her education except for the degree she earned and the institution she earned it from.

Wikipedia discusses this topic in a minimalist way that barley scratches the surface of this woman. While we take the time in class to look at what may of inspired such women directors, this Wikipedia article provides vague details that do not thoroughly encompass what this filmmaker has accomplished.