User:Sr10721/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
True crime

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
I chose this article because our class discusses true crime in different media sources. I thought this article would be detailed since the topic is broad and would also be informative to supplement the discussions of true crime we have in class with more historical background.

Evaluate the article
The lead section is shorter than some, but it provides all of the details required in a lead section including a sentence for the article topic, a description of the articles content, and is concise. The only overly detailed section would be the sentence about specific works in true crime. However, I believe this aids the lead section to further explain what true crime is.

The content section has a lot of history on true crime in its many forms. Most of the content is up-to-date, but the article could further expand on the true crime genre in films and television. Over just the past 3 years, we have seen an increase in true crime media that this article touches on in its Netflix section. However, these sections could be updated with more recent true crime crazes. Statistics for true crime film and podcasts is updated to 2020, but that information is becoming obsolete as time goes on. The effects section also had data from 2011 - 2017, which is now almost 6-10 years old and is outdated. This article would benefit from more recent data on the true crime genre. The content section does not include much detail on communities who are underrepresented or harmed more by the true crime genre. This would be a good addition to the article.

The tone of this article is neutral and brings up different frames of reference when trying to explain specific phenomena. Some of the language could be interpreted as having a non-neutral tone simply because of the way it was written. For example. the article reads "Netflix has become one of the most influential streaming services in regard to their True Crime selection." This statement is true, but has no source nor information to back up the claim. With the proper facts, this statement could be changed to have a more neutral, factual tone. As stated previously, this article doesn't describe many minority viewpoints. This article does not sway the reader into thinking a different way.

There is a detailed reference section with many sources. While many of the sources are from scholarly, peer-reviewed journals, there are some from news media such as The Guardian, The Atlantic, and The New York Times. Most of the sources are dated by a few years and should be updated to reflect the current information we have today. There were parts of the article which could be expanded on more and needed citations, so there is room for more citations to be added. The links on the reference page lead to the websites they intend to.

The article is clear and concise. It was easy to read and follow the progression of the timeline of true crime. Throughout reading the article, I did not notice and jarring spelling or grammatical errors. The article was broken down into clear sections that aided in the flow of the information. Each section was also a needed one and did its job to effectively tell the story of true crime.

There was only one picture in this article. While it aided to one part of the article, this page would do well if it included more images. This image does not correspond with a specific topic in the article, so a better picture could be used that corresponds with a specific pamphlet mentioned in the article. This article specifically talks about different literature, podcasts, and movies/television and could add pictures of those media sources. The caption on the one image was very short and didn't correspond with any specific knowledge from the article. It could be improved upon by adding more detail. The image is public domain so there is no copywrite issues.

There weren't many discussions in the talk page. Mainly there were two comments about an issue of missing information and some contradictory sources. This article was part of a Wiki Education assignment and was part of the WikiProject Crime project. The discussions seemed less constructive and since nobody responded to any of the discussions made, it didn't seem to aid the article.

Overall, this article is a good start to understanding true crime. It mentions many points of interest in the historical context, but lacks modern information on true crime. This article could be improved by providing more modern information and providing sources to the claims they make. I would say this article is underdeveloped and could be revamped with many more sources and topics of discussion.