Echoes of Hegemony:

Media Dominance in Chilean Political Content on Wikipedia

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Carla Toro Fernández

Patricia Díaz Rubio

Wikimedia Chile

What happens when the most consulted encyclopedia in the world relies on a source system that isn’t plural?

Keeping Wikipedia as plural as possible

• In the case of political and current affairs articles, media becomes a relevant source for Wikipedia.

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• In the case of Chile, the media industry is allarmaly concentrated.�
• Our research motivation:
• how this might affects Wikipedia’s diverse knowledge construction
• lack of prior research on this specific topic on eswiki.

• Since 1990s: Two conglomerates that control 98% of the media market (CNTV, 2019): El Mercurio S.A.P. and COPESA (Sunkel. G, 2002).

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• Both of those companies identify with the right wing, whether is conservative or liberal.�
• The results: this duopoly controls the agenda and its framing, a topic largely studied for several years.

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Context: The Chilean Media Ecosystem

• Reliable sources that allow users to verify the information.
• Users and sources plurality encouraged, but… what happens when the source pool isn’t that diverse?
• Our concern: local media landscape affects Wikipedia’s vision.
• Users won’t have a broader picture of these informations.

Wikipedia’s Policies and objectives

Objective: Analyze articles (real) diversity, or not, by identifying which media are most used as sources in Chilean political articles on Wikipedia (2020–2025).

Methodology: A corpus of 100 articles related to Chilean politics and current events from 2020-2025, a period where at least 5 different elections had have place.�Quantitative approach: analyzed top 5 media references per article.

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Research conduction

of citation corresponded to alternative/ independent media

of citations corresponded to hegemonic media

of citations corresponded to official/government sources

73%

20%

7%

Overall Findings

Political biographies

Category Analysis

Political events

Social movements and protests

Category Analysis

Corruption cases

• Most articles have unique combinations, but a small group of hegemonic media dominates.�
• La Tercera (COPESA), Biobío, Emol (El Mercurio SAP) and Cooperativa appear most often.�
• “Agenda-setting” effect visible (Bidegain, G; Maillet, A, 2021).

Findings: Media Repetition & Dominance

Findings: Cases of High Dependency

• 6 articles show over 30% of citations from 1 source��
• Wikipedia avoids monopoly, but still some concentration

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Discussion: Wikipedia as Mirror, Not the Cause

• Wikipedia reflects media ecosystem, doesn’t necessarily create it.�
• Reliance on available “reliable sources”. If media ecosystem is concentrated, Wikipedia will also be it.�
• Structural issue that affects access to information and therefor democracies.

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• Impact on neutrality and representation.�
• Risk of reinforcing dominant narratives.�
• Especially important in political/historical topics where diversity enriches users experience.

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Why this matters

• Diversify sources where possible.

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• Encourage use of high-quality alternative and independent media.

• Strengthen media literacy among editors�
• Engage in source-awareness campaigns in Latin America

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Recommendations

• Wikipedia is a powerful space for collaborative knowledge�
• But its openness must be paired with critical source awareness�
• A plural Wikipedia needs a plural information ecosystem

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Conclusions

Q&A

Echoes of Hegemony:

Media Dominance in Chilean Political Content on Wikipedia

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Let’s stay in touch!

carla.toro@wikimediachile.cl

patricia.diaz@wikimediachile.cl