Negotiating Knowledge on Wikipedia : A mixed method study on the participation and engagement towards Wikipedia among Swedish scholars' through a cultural approach

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this study was to identify certain experiences among Swedish scholars towards their use of Wikipedia. The goal was to create a deeper understanding of how audiences with academic professions experience Wikipedia as a place to share knowledge with other individuals. This study was done through the perspectives of the ANT theory (Latour, 2005) and the User-Gratification theory (Katz et al., 1973). The method of choice was a mixed method research where the primary choice of method was qualitative interviews with seven Swedish scholars and one expert interview consisting of an employee at the Swedish Wikimedia foundation. This material was analyzed through a thematic analysis. Some of the findings from the interview was also analyzed through a computational network analysis to provide deeper insight into the concept of Wikipedia.    The research showed that there is a variated view on the scholar’s role on Wikipedia. While some of the participants criticized the structure in which the information was produced, some raised awareness into the importance to provide society with reliable and scientific knowledge in which important decisions can be based on. Different actors within the network of Wikipedia were identified which provided a deeper insight into the variety of individuals and non-human elements that work together to generate content on Wikipedia. A few of these actors and their relationships between one another was also visualized during the study. This provided even further analytical insight to Wikipedia as a platform. The overall view among the participants showed that there is a lack of incitement on how and why scholars should contribute to Wikipedia in Sweden. The results also showed that there are a variety of ways in which the platform of Wikipedia can be viewed depending on personal use the website. The cultural approach to Wikipedia was discussed in the context to how Wikipedia can provide society with information and how this might act as a form of cultural heritage online.