Beyond the encyclopedia: Collective memories in Wikipedia
Abstract
Collective memory processes have been studied from many different perspectives. For example, while psychology has investigated collaborative recall in small groups, other research traditions have focused on flashbulb memories or on the cultural processes involved in the formation of collective memories of entire nations. In this article, considering the online encyclopedia Wikipedia as a global memory place, we analyze online commemoration patterns of traumatic events. We extracted 88 articles and talk pages related to traumatic events, and using logistic regression, we analyzed their edit activity comparing it with more than 370,000 other Wikipedia pages. Results show that the relative amount of edits during anniversaries can significantly distinguish between pages related to traumatic events and other pages. The logistic regression results, together with the transcription of a group of messages exchanged by the users during the anniversaries of the September 11 attacks and the Virginia Tech massacre, suggest that commemoration activities take place in Wikipedia, opening the way to the quantitative study of online collective memory building processes on a large scale.
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When people of public interest die, this usually leads to a sharp rise in media attention and social media activity that decays in a matter of days and rises again at anniversaries and special dates related to the deceased individual.
“When people of public interest die, this usually leads to a sharp rise in media attention and social media activity that decays in a matter of days (West et al., 2021) and rises again at anniversaries and special dates related to the deceased individual (cf.Ferron & Massa, 2014;Keegan & Brubaker, 2015).”
From Understanding Autobiographical Memory in the Digital Age: The AMEDIA-Model (2024) · cites this paper as Ferron & Massa, 2014
Cites
Towards a psychology of collective memory
Hirst, W., & Manier, D. (2008) · Memory · doi:10.1080/09658210701811912 · Cited by 443 · cited 9× · see citing works
“Commemoration of traumatic events in Wikipedia Theoretical research emphasizes the importance of the functional nature of collective memory and its close connection with the collective identity of a community (Harris et al., 2008; Hirst and Manier, 2008).”
BackgroundInfluentialTerrorism in the new memory ecology: Mediating and remembering the 2005 London Bombings
Brown, S. D., & Hoskins, A. (2010) · Behavioral Sciences of Terrorism and Political Aggression · doi:10.1080/19434471003597399 · Cited by 100 · cited 3× · see citing works
“Contemporary perspectives of remembering understand memory as an active process, where what is remembered is actively built and reconstructed every time, introducing the past into the present (Brown and Hoskins, 2010; Garde-Hanse et al., 2009).”
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Collective memory and social media: fostering a new historical consciousness in the digital age?
Birkner, T., & Donk, A. (2020) · Memory Studies · doi:10.1177/1750698017750012 · Cited by 112 · see citing works
Understanding Autobiographical Memory in the Digital Age: The AMEDIA-Model
Hutmacher, F., Appel, M., & Schwan, S. (2024) · Psychological Inquiry · doi:10.1080/1047840x.2024.2384125 · Cited by 12 · see citing works
Digital methods in memory studies: a beginner's guide to scalable reading of Twitter data
Jensen, H. S., Jensen, J. M., Thygesen, A. U., & Pedersen, M. O. (2024) · Memory Studies · doi:10.1177/17506980231197126 · Cited by 9 · see citing works
- Authors
- Ferron, M., & Massa, P.
- Affiliations
- Fondazione Bruno Kessler (IT)
- Venue
- Memory Studies
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2013-07-08
- Volume
- 7
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 22-45
- ISSN
- 1750-6980 (ISSN-L)
- 1750-6999
- OpenAlex
- W2062852672
- Cited by
- 46
- References
- 2
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 4 · 2015: 4 · 2014: 2
- FWCI
- 2.75
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Memory Studies (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Memory, Trauma, and Commemoration
- Social Sciences › Communication › Wikis in Education and Collaboration
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Philosophy › Memory, History, Trauma, Identity
- Keywords
- collective memory, Wikipedia, online commemoration, traumatic events, anniversary, September 11 attacks, collaborative recall, flashbulb memory, online encyclopedias
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