User:Etsc9/Evaluate an Article

Evaluate an article

This is where you will complete your article evaluation. Please use the template below to evaluate your selected article.

• Name of article: (Mass surveillance in China)
• Briefly describe why you have chosen this article to evaluate. : I remember briefly learning about surveillance in China in a previous course and I thought it would be interesting to evaluate in the context of this course.

Lead

Guiding questions

Mass surveillance in China is the network of monitoring systems used by the Chinese government to supervise the lives of Chinese citizens. It is primarily conducted through the government, although non-publicized corporate surveillance in connection with the Chinese government has been speculated to occur. China monitors its citizens through Internet and camera surveillance as well as through a social credit system and other digital technologies. Mass surveillance in China has significantly increased since Xi Jinping became the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (paramount leader) in 2012. In 2019, Comparitech reported that 8 out of 10 most monitored cities in the world are in China.

• Does the Lead include an introductory sentence that concisely and clearly describes the article's topic?
  • Yes, it does. It is precise yet encompassing. It establishes the identities of the acting party (Chinese government), the party acted upon (Chinese citizens). It also gives clarity to the meaning of surveillance as "monitoring" and identifies the purpose of this surveillance to "supervise".
• Does the Lead include a brief description of the article's major sections?
  • The major sections are technique, region, spending estimates, current affairs, and timeline. The introduction briefly describes the technique as "internet and camera". It does not explicitly mention regions in a significant sense but it does detail that it is within china and that 8 of the 10 most monitored cities in the world are in China as a result of this. It does not mention spending estimates. It does mention that surveillance has "significantly increased", accounting for the current affairs section. This also alludes to the recent timeline but the Lead does not give information about the full timeline or even the beginnings of this surveillance.
• Does the Lead include information that is not present in the article?
  • Yes. There is no mention of the speculated corporate surveillance in the article. Although it is a speculation, so there may not be enough content or enough neutral content to further elaborate. The article also does not go on to mention Xi Jinping after the Lead. This is a bit confusing as the Lead seems to establish him as an important actor in the significant increase of surveillance.
• Is the Lead concise or is it overly detailed?
  • it is concise.

Lead evaluation

The Lead is effective in establishing and defining the important aspects of mass surveillance in China. However, it fails to mention a some important information, including a few of the main sections that follow.

Content

Guiding questions

• Is the article's content relevant to the topic?
  • yes.
• Is the content up-to-date?
  • It is for some information, such as China's announced actions and announced future plans for surveillance. But in the last couple years this topic has been subject of political and politicized news. The extent of surveillance and intent of surveillance (especially surveillance of muslim Uyghurs and other ethnic groups in China) remains unconfirmed by the Chinese government, so it may not be appropriate to provide one-sided evidence concerning the disputed actions and injustices of the Chinese government.
• Is there content that is missing or content that does not belong?
  • there is some content missing, but under wikipedia guidelines it may not be appropriate to include, or it may not have credible sources yet.

Content evaluation

Overall, the content is effective as it addresses all necessary topics concerning methodology and technology used in surveilling the Chinese people.

Tone and Balance

Guiding questions

• Is the article neutral?
  • No.
• Are there any claims that appear heavily biased toward a particular position?
  • This article, while it does not directly state it, seems to condemn the surveillance conducted by the Chinese government. Words like "forced", "threat" are used to describe the surveillance. The article's content is more weighted in describing the freedoms that are not available to citizens, describing the frequency of checkpoints as "almost everywhere", seemingly looking to communicate the vast oppressiveness of the Chinese government.
• Are there viewpoints that are overrepresented, or underrepresented?
  • While it may be true that the surveillance of Chinese citizens is oppressive and over-extensive, this article seems to push that narrative too heavily. My intuition tells me Chinese government would not describe its surveillance initiatives in the tone that is used in this article, and while that viewpoint would be biased as well, it is not mentioned in the article.
• Does the article attempt to persuade the reader in favor of one position or away from another?
  • It has no "call to action" or any content implying that the reader should take on position or the other. But it does seem to acknowledge surveillance as inherently oppressive, and that may not be agreed upon enough to be considered neutral.

Tone and balance evaluation

This article is written from an outside perspective, which gives it the advantage of providing unbiased information. While it does provide unbiased information, the tone it uses is very obviously consistent with western norms and ideas of freedom.

Sources and References

Guiding questions

• Are all facts in the article backed up by a reliable secondary source of information?
  • yes.
• Are the sources thorough - i.e. Do they reflect the available literature on the topic?
  • this is difficult to judge as this topic is ongoing and there is a lot of dispute about the Chinese government's honesty as well as a lingering question of what is available to the public to report on.
• Are the sources current?
  • yes, and many of them are news sources.
• Check a few links. Do they work?
  • yes.

Sources and references evaluation

the sources are thorough for the information provided. It is difficult to judge what other sources exist and are reliable.

Organization

Guiding questions

• Is the article well-written - i.e. Is it concise, clear, and easy to read?
  • yes.
• Does the article have any grammatical or spelling errors?
  • not that I noticed.
• Is the article well-organized - i.e. broken down into sections that reflect the major points of the topic?
  • Yes.

Organization evaluation

The organization of this article is clear and consistent with expectations. From personal experience, I know most wikipedia articles begin with history and have ongoing issues more towards the end. This article is consistent with that method. The more complex specifics are in the middle of the content, making it easier for skimming readers to know where to look for "big picture" content. The table of contents is also extremely helpful in navigating the article and the layout is logical.

Images and Media

Guiding questions

• Does the article include images that enhance understanding of the topic?
  • yes.
• Are images well-captioned?
  • yes.
• Do all images adhere to Wikipedia's copyright regulations?
  • yes.
• Are the images laid out in a visually appealing way?
  • yes.

Images and media evaluation

There are only two images in this article, and while they are helpful I believe there could be more. For example when it describes checkpoints or marketplace surveillance it would be helpful to have an image to enhance that topic.

Checking the talk page

Guiding questions

• What kinds of conversations, if any, are going on behind the scenes about how to represent this topic?
  • there are no back-and-forth conversations. But there is one post about "research gaps that can be filled" and another announcing the modification of an external link
• How is the article rated? Is it a part of any WikiProjects?
  • It is part of WikiProject Mass surveillance
    • it "has been rated as Start-Class on the project's quality scale."
    • it "has been rated as High-importance on the project's importance scale."
  • It is also part of WikiProject China
    • it "has been rated as Start-Class on the project's quality scale."
    • it has not yet been rated on importance.
• How does the way Wikipedia discusses this topic differ from the way we've talked about it in class?
  • We have talked about ancient/historical Chinese surveillance and security, including the monitoring of cities and how the state would not let people move in and out. We have not talked about China in the modern context since the cultural revolution, and this article does not consider pre-cultural revolution state surveillance as relevant.

Overall impressions

Guiding questions

• What is the article's overall status?
  • I'm not sure where to find this.
• What are the article's strengths?
  • It covers all necessary topics within the Chinese surveillance of its citizens.
• How can the article be improved?
  • It does not cover each topic as extensively as it should. For example, it doesn't fully cover the social credit system and how one can move up or down. It also does not cover recent issues such as suspected muslim internment camps, along with the umbrella movement and surveillance of it.
• How would you assess the article's completeness - i.e. Is the article well-developed? Is it underdeveloped or poorly developed?
  • the article it sufficiently-developed

Overall evaluation

The article is sufficiently developed with room for improvement but no concerning holes.

Optional activity

• Choose at least 1 question relevant to the article you're evaluating and leave your evaluation on the article's Talk page. Be sure to sign your feedback

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