User:Mcmogan/sandbox

ARTICLE EVALUATION

Focusing on the Berlin Conference as it relates to current course material and appears to need considerable work.

Main focus will be on editing/adding citations as Wikipedia feedback has noted the need for improvement there. Content will also be analyzed in an attempt to supplement or improve existing content.

·        '''Is everything in the article relevant to the article topic? Is there anything that distracted you?''' All information appears to be relevant and well structured on the page to be read in a logical flow.

·        '''Is the article neutral? Are there any claims, or frames, that appear heavily biased toward a particular position?''' Very hard to determine neutrality or bias as the article has large sections that have very few or completely lack references and/or citations

·        '''Check a few citations. Do the links work? Does the source support the claims in the article?''' – Link to European Colonization links to article on general colonialization not specific to Europe. Should be revised. Otherwise, all links work and link appropriately.

·         '''Is each fact referenced with an appropriate, reliable reference? Where does the information come from? Are these neutral sources? If biased, is that bias noted?'''

As noted, the main issue with this page is the lack of references. The references that are provided however seem to be reliable, academic sources. Of note was the inclusion of a source authored by an African native, which seems an attempt at balance. Most works referenced were of European authorship, which could mean bias weighted towards the European view.

Statistic not cited – “By 1902, 90% of all the land that makes up Africa was under European control.” Found this exact sentence in A Revised History for Advanced Level & Colleges by by Nassoro Habib Mbwana Msonde. Possible plagarism

·         '''Check out the Talk page of the article. What kinds of conversations, if any, are going on behind the scenes about how to represent this topic?'''

Much of the talk relating to the page is centered on the lack of citation and reference. Some have pointed to the issue that the lack of citation/reference exists to such a large degree and others have used the same observation to claim possible bias.

·        '''How is the article rated? Is it a part of any WikiProjects?'''

Article is of interest to several Wiki Projects:

WikiProject Politics of the United Kingdom (Rated Start-class, High-importance)

WikiProject Portugal  (Rated Start-class, High-importance)

WikiProject Germany  (Rated Start-class, High-importance)

WikiProject Spain  (Rated Start-class, High-importance)

WikiProject Africa / Morocco (Rated Start-class, Top-importance)

WikiProject France (Rated Start-class, High-importance)

·        How does the way Wikipedia discusses this topic differ from the way we've talked about it in class?

The article goes into much more detail as our chapter noted the colonization of Africa briefly