Zachary J Mcdowell
Biographic Data
| ID | 4266352 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Zachary J Mcdowell |
| GIVEN NAMES | Zachary J |
| FAMILY NAME | Mcdowell |
| SIGNATURE | MCDOWELL Z J |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Illinois Chicago |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-9666-7587 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 12 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 8 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 12 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2014 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Fast "Truths" and Slow Knowledge; Oracular Answers and Wikipedia's Epistemology
An endangered species: How LLMs threaten Wikipedia’s sustainability
As a collaboratively edited and open-access knowledge archive, Wikipedia offers a vast dataset for training artificial intelligence (AI) applications and models, enhancing data accessibility and access to information. However, reliance on the crowd-sourced encyclopedia raises ethical issues related to data provenance, knowledge production, curation, and digital labor. Drawing on critical data studies, feminist posthumanism, and recent research at…
Wikipedia and AI: Access, representation, and advocacy in the age of large language models
Wikipedia, despite its volunteer-driven nature, stands as a trustworthy repository of information, thanks to its transparent and verifiable processes. However, Large Language Models (LLMs) often use Wikipedia as a source without acknowledging it, creating a disconnect between users and Wikipedia’s rich framework. This poses a triple threat to information literacy, Wikipedia’s vitality, and the potential for dynamic, updated information. This arti…
Internet Governance and Moral Entrepreneurs
A growing body of academic work on internet governance focuses on the “deplatforming of sex,” or the removal and suppression of sexual expression from the internet. Often, this is linked to the 2018 passing of FOSTA/SESTA – much-criticized twin bills that make internet intermediaries liable for content that promotes or facilitates prostitution or sex trafficking. We suggest analyzing both internet governance and the deplatforming of sex in conjun…
Semantic Media: Political Economy Perspectives on Platformized Fact Production
Large media platforms are now in the habit of providing facts in their products and representing knowledge to various publics. For example, Google’s Knowledge Graph is a database of facts that Google uses to provide quick answers to publics who use their products, while Wikipedia has a product called Wikidata that similarly stores facts about the world in data formats through which various apps can retrieve the data. Microsoft, Amazon, and IBM us…
Wikipedia's Enlightenment Problem: Decolonizing Western Epistemologies Through Critical Open Education Practices
Although Wikipedia uniquely challenges the boundaries of the encyclopedic genre in terms of collaboration, technology, authority, and knowledge production, it remains an encyclopedia, an epistemological method and forum that carries with it the ideological traces and functions of Enlightenment print culture. Such print culture manifests itself most visibly in the policy of verifiability. Although verifiability ensures that editors support their c…
The (not so) secret governors of the internet: Morality policing and platform politics
A growing body of academic work on internet governance focuses on the ‘deplatforming of sex’, or the removal and suppression of sexual expression from the internet. Often, this is linked to the 2018 passing of FOSTA/SESTA – much-criticized twin bills that make internet intermediaries liable for content that promotes or facilitates prostitution or sex trafficking. We suggest analyzing both internet governance and the deplatforming of sex in conjun…
Fast “Truths” and Slow Knowledge; Oracular Answers and Wikipedia’s Epistemology
No description supplied
Wikipedia as Open Educational Practice: Experiential Learning, Critical Information Literacy, and Social Justice
Building on previous research related to information literacy and learning with Wikipedia, this article interprets Wikipedia editing practices as fulfilling the Association of College and Research Libraries' (ACRL) Framework for Information Literacy in Higher Education to better understand Wikipedia pedagogy as an Open Educational Practice (OEP) that promotes critical information literacy and social justice. Drawing primarily on data from a large…
It Takes a Village to Combat a Fake News Army: Wikipedia's Community and Policies for Information Literacy
The fake news crisis points to a complex set of circumstances in which new media ecologies struggle to address challenges related to authenticity, rhetorical manipulation and disinformation, and the inability of traditional educational models to adequately teach toward critical information literacy. While social media sites such as Facebook acknowledge the culpability of their platforms in spreading fake news, and create new strategies for addres…
Monetizing a Meme: YouTube, Content ID, and the Harlem Shake
This article analyzes the creation, evolution, and monetization of the Harlem Shake meme on YouTube to explore contemporary implementation of copyright and understanding of authorship in regard to monetization of works with distributed authorship. This article has three main findings: first, we highlight the collection of digital labor that comprises the 'Harlem Shake' meme, its rise in popularity, and the subsequent rise in popularity of Baauer,…
The machine question: Critical perspectives on AI, robots, and ethics
Monetizing a Meme: YouTube, Content ID, and the Harlem Shake
This article analyzes the creation, evolution, and monetization of the Harlem Shake meme on YouTube to explore contemporary implementation of copyright and understanding of authorship in regard to monetization of works with distributed authorship. This article has three main findings: first, we highlight the collection of digital labor that comprises the 'Harlem Shake' meme, its rise in popularity, and the subsequent rise in popularity of Baauer,…
It Takes a Village to Combat a Fake News Army: Wikipedia's Community and Policies for Information Literacy
The fake news crisis points to a complex set of circumstances in which new media ecologies struggle to address challenges related to authenticity, rhetorical manipulation and disinformation, and the inability of traditional educational models to adequately teach toward critical information literacy. While social media sites such as Facebook acknowledge the culpability of their platforms in spreading fake news, and create new strategies for addres…
The machine question: Critical perspectives on AI, robots, and ethics
Monetizing a Meme: YouTube, Content ID, and the Harlem Shake
This article analyzes the creation, evolution, and monetization of the Harlem Shake meme on YouTube to explore contemporary implementation of copyright and understanding of authorship in regard to monetization of works with distributed authorship. This article has three main findings: first, we highlight the collection of digital labor that comprises the 'Harlem Shake' meme, its rise in popularity, and the subsequent rise in popularity of Baauer,…
It Takes a Village to Combat a Fake News Army: Wikipedia's Community and Policies for Information Literacy
The fake news crisis points to a complex set of circumstances in which new media ecologies struggle to address challenges related to authenticity, rhetorical manipulation and disinformation, and the inability of traditional educational models to adequately teach toward critical information literacy. While social media sites such as Facebook acknowledge the culpability of their platforms in spreading fake news, and create new strategies for addres…
Fast “Truths” and Slow Knowledge; Oracular Answers and Wikipedia’s Epistemology
No description supplied
Wikipedia as Open Educational Practice: Experiential Learning, Critical Information Literacy, and Social Justice
Building on previous research related to information literacy and learning with Wikipedia, this article interprets Wikipedia editing practices as fulfilling the Association of College and Research Libraries' (ACRL) Framework for Information Literacy in Higher Education to better understand Wikipedia pedagogy as an Open Educational Practice (OEP) that promotes critical information literacy and social justice. Drawing primarily on data from a large…
Internet Governance and Moral Entrepreneurs
A growing body of academic work on internet governance focuses on the “deplatforming of sex,” or the removal and suppression of sexual expression from the internet. Often, this is linked to the 2018 passing of FOSTA/SESTA – much-criticized twin bills that make internet intermediaries liable for content that promotes or facilitates prostitution or sex trafficking. We suggest analyzing both internet governance and the deplatforming of sex in conjun…
Semantic Media: Political Economy Perspectives on Platformized Fact Production
Large media platforms are now in the habit of providing facts in their products and representing knowledge to various publics. For example, Google’s Knowledge Graph is a database of facts that Google uses to provide quick answers to publics who use their products, while Wikipedia has a product called Wikidata that similarly stores facts about the world in data formats through which various apps can retrieve the data. Microsoft, Amazon, and IBM us…
Wikipedia's Enlightenment Problem: Decolonizing Western Epistemologies Through Critical Open Education Practices
Although Wikipedia uniquely challenges the boundaries of the encyclopedic genre in terms of collaboration, technology, authority, and knowledge production, it remains an encyclopedia, an epistemological method and forum that carries with it the ideological traces and functions of Enlightenment print culture. Such print culture manifests itself most visibly in the policy of verifiability. Although verifiability ensures that editors support their c…
The (not so) secret governors of the internet: Morality policing and platform politics
A growing body of academic work on internet governance focuses on the ‘deplatforming of sex’, or the removal and suppression of sexual expression from the internet. Often, this is linked to the 2018 passing of FOSTA/SESTA – much-criticized twin bills that make internet intermediaries liable for content that promotes or facilitates prostitution or sex trafficking. We suggest analyzing both internet governance and the deplatforming of sex in conjun…
Wikipedia and AI: Access, representation, and advocacy in the age of large language models
Wikipedia, despite its volunteer-driven nature, stands as a trustworthy repository of information, thanks to its transparent and verifiable processes. However, Large Language Models (LLMs) often use Wikipedia as a source without acknowledging it, creating a disconnect between users and Wikipedia’s rich framework. This poses a triple threat to information literacy, Wikipedia’s vitality, and the potential for dynamic, updated information. This arti…
An endangered species: How LLMs threaten Wikipedia’s sustainability
As a collaboratively edited and open-access knowledge archive, Wikipedia offers a vast dataset for training artificial intelligence (AI) applications and models, enhancing data accessibility and access to information. However, reliance on the crowd-sourced encyclopedia raises ethical issues related to data provenance, knowledge production, curation, and digital labor. Drawing on critical data studies, feminist posthumanism, and recent research at…
Fast "Truths" and Slow Knowledge; Oracular Answers and Wikipedia's Epistemology
Sociology (7 works) · Wikis in Education and Collaboration (7 works) · Computer Science (6 works) · Political science (6 works) · Law (5 works) · World Wide Web (4 works) · Epistemology (3 works) · Philosophy (3 works) · The Internet (3 works) · Web and Library Services (3 works)