User:GS214/Choose an Article

Article Selection
Please list articles that you're considering for your Wikipedia assignment below. Begin to critique these articles and find relevant sources.

Option 1  
 * Article title: Social comparison theory
 * Article Evaluation:
 * From what I can see in this article, the lead section is straight to the point and explains the theory concisely. As far as the content portion of the article goes, it seems very informative and explains the various portions of the theory. I really like the way that the article is organized, as it goes from the lead section, to the background of the theory, into the details of the theory, and then into media influence and criticisms. From the read through that I did, it seems that the sources are all relevant social psychology journals. There does not seem to be an over reliance on one source. When I went to the talk page of the article, it seems like there could be some improvement. The last edit that wasn't part of the Wiki Education Foundation was from 2007. I believe that because of this, there might be some edits that could be done to the article of recent research. Likewise, when looking at the Media Influence section, there's only two social medias referenced: FaceBook and Instagram. In the past few years, many more social medias have been created so it could be beneficial to add more information on this to that section.
 * Sources: Both of these academic papers center on social comparison theory and its interactions with social media, which might be beneficial for updating this article.

 

Option 2
 * Article title: Managing the news
 * Article Evaluation:
 * This article is one I found in the "stub," section of communication articles. Because of that, there is not enough significant information regarding managing the news in this article. More information expanding on the idea of managing the news would be beneficial for this article. Additionally, there are only two sources for the article which means that there needs to be more sources to back up every claim. What fully supports my idea that this is a potential article that could be edited is the Talk Page. The last comment made on the Talk Page was back in 2005, which means that the article could use some more recent edits and information.
 * Sources: There are not many scholarly sources on managing the news, so this may be a possible problem if this was the article chosen to edit.

Option 3
 * Article title: Mass media and American politics
 * Article Evaluation:
 * The article itself is very thorough and goes through the history of mass media through America and its impacts on politics. The lead section is only one sentence, which is very succint and straight to the point, however I wonder if there can be more elaboration on this subject for the lead section. There is a large variety of references from plenty of varying sources. I do believe that similar to the first article on this list, there could be some more elaboration in the contemporary section. When looking at the Talk Page, the last edit was made in 2016, which was seven years about. Because of this, I think that there could be more elaboration on this article, and specifically in the contemporary section.
 * Sources: The source I found is a study published in 2019 that could bring some more modern information to bulk up the contemporary section of this article.

Option 4 Option 5
 * Article title: Social media in the 2020 United States presidential election
 * Article Evaluation:
 * This article's lead section was thorough and gave readers a detailed explanation on social media use in the 2020 election. I really like how this article is organized, especially going into the democratic candidate, republican candidate, and then third-party candidates. Likewise, I think specific paragraphs regarding different social medias makes the article even more informative. I think somewhere this article could be improved is the same improvement that I suggested for other articles on this list. The Talk Page's last edit was from 2020. While the article specifically focuses on an event from 2020, I believe there might be more recent information on the event that has come out in the past few years.
 * Sources: There are so many interesting studies on the 2020 election and social media, so I believe it would be possible to add more information to the article.
 * Article title: Frog pond effect
 * Article Evaluation:
 * I found this article from the social comparisons theory article. I found the topic very interesting, however it is very short. There is even an announcement from Wikipedia at the top of the page that the lead section might be too short. I like how the article is organized, but I think some more elaboration in each section could be beneficial. The talk page has a comments from 2020, so it could be good to have some more information added.
 * Sources: