User:Jennameyers106/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
Pastel QAnon

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
(Briefly explain why you chose it, why it matters, and what your preliminary impression of it was.)

I chose it because I'm interested in studying QAnon and alt-right conspiracies, and it's related to my project in CS115. It matters because conspiracy theories such as Q can be very dangerous, normalizing belief in fake news, eliminating people's individuality/sense of self/productivity, inciting people to carry and express racist/sexist/homophobic/xenophobic/transphobic opinions, and causing people to enact violence against others. This article matters in particular because it describes one way in which the conspiracy indoctrinates new members. I thought it was well-written, clear, well-cited, and informative.

Evaluate the article
(Compose a detailed evaluation of the article here, considering each of the key aspects listed above. Consider the guiding questions, and check out the examples of what a useful Wikipedia article evaluation looks like.)

Lead Section

The introductory sentence clearly and concisely provides a definition of the topic.

The lead section includes some information about the major headings, but not all, and not in order: for example, it leaves off certain groups of women that are targeted, and how the conspiracy theory hijacks social media tags to gain traction.

The lead includes information not presented later in the article, which is description of the researcher who identified the trend.

The lead section is concise.

Content

The content is relevant and useful to the topic.

The content is up-to-date, with citations only a few months old or less.

Some content is missing, such as the researcher who identified the trend that was mentioned in the lead. It is also missing more details about which social media platforms contain these indoctrination techniques, and their individual characteristics, if any, on these platforms.

The content does address historically underrepresented groups, such as women of color.

Tone and Balance

The article is mostly neutral; however, may have some opinion injected, especially when discussing the motivations of yoga influencers sharing the conspiracy.

No claims seem heavily biased.

Sources and References

Many facts are backed up with multiple secondary sources; however one entire section which contains 2 sentences only has one citation that seems unrelated to the facts presented.

Not all sources that should have been used were used; there are no sources discussing the topic with POC women, and only one source specifically talking about the topic with white women. Sources mainly contain information about how QAnon conspiracies are spreading to other platforms, how the conspiracy originated, and political/news events related to QAnon such as the attack on the Capitol and the Nashville Bomber. There are a few related sources about pastel QAnon, such as sources about yoga, women making the conspiracy aesthetic, and mom groups. Sources are diverse. Better and more numerous sources are available that more relate to the topic at hand. More sources should include how the conspiracy targets marginalized women or victimized women. There should also be more sources about how pastel QAnon is stylized and spread throughout social media platforms. Links work.

One source is not reliable -- a youtube video by a television host -- and this source seems to be used about 10 times in the article.

Organization and Writing Quality

The article is well written and well organized.

Images and Media

There are no images and media, which would have been useful, considering the article is intended to characterize how this movement attracted women via aesthetics on social media.

Talk PageArticle is rated start class and low importance in Wikiprojects alternative views, conservatism, politics, skepticism, United States, and Media.

There are no discussions on this topic.

Overall Impressions

The article needs more information, more reliable and relevant sources, images, discussion on talk pages, and more sources and discussion on how the topic impacts marginalized groups. The article does provide a decent introduction into the topic, though it is underdeveloped.