Load the necessary packages

library(tidyverse)

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## ✔ readr   1.3.1     ✔ forcats 0.3.0

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## ✖ dplyr::filter() masks stats::filter()
## ✖ dplyr::lag()    masks stats::lag()

library(pageviews)        # This package gets data on Wikipedia viewing
library(DT)               # DT stands for datatable, and creates interactive tables

Load Wikipedia’s viewership iformation on Gun control

guns <- article_pageviews(article = "Gun control", start = as.Date("2015-7-1"), end = as.Date("2018-12-31"))

Graph this data over time

guns %>%
  ggplot(aes(x = date, y = views))+
geom_line(color = "purple")+ theme_minimal()+ 
  labs(x = "Date",
         y = "Views",
         title = "Views of Wikipedia Gun Control Over Time")

Create a table depicting the most views on reading Gun control artiicles on Wikipedia

guns %>%
  select(date, views) %>%
  arrange(-views) %>%
  datatable()

Wikipedia Views the day after the Las Vegas shooting

top_articles(start = as.Date("2017-10-2")) %>% select(article, views)%>%
  filter(!article == "Main_Page", !article == "Special:Search")%>%
  datatable()

Wikipedia Views the day after the Florida school shooting

top_articles(start = as.Date("2018-2-15")) %>% select(article, views)%>%
  filter(!article == "Main_Page", !article == "Special:Search")%>%
  datatable()

Getting the comparitive data

vegas_shooting <- article_pageviews(article = "Gun_control",
                           start = as.Date("2017-9-24"),
                           end = as.Date("2017-10-15"))

vegas_shooting <- vegas_shooting %>% 
  mutate(day = -7:14) %>% 
  mutate(event = "Las Vegas")


florida_shooting <- article_pageviews(article = "Gun_control",
                           start = as.Date("2018-2-7"),
                           end = as.Date("2018-2-28"))

florida_shooting <- florida_shooting %>% 
  mutate(day = -7:14) %>% 
  mutate(event = "Florida")

shootings <- bind_rows(vegas_shooting, florida_shooting)

Comparing the Florida and Las Vegas Shootings

shootings %>% 
  ggplot(aes(x = day, y = views, color = event))+
  geom_line()+
  theme_minimal()+
    labs(x = "Days before/after shooting",
        y = "Views",
        title = "Views of Wikipedia Gun control article, before/after mass shootings")

As one can see from the table above, Wikipedia viewership was increased after the Florida and Las Vegas shootings. The viewership even continued on for at least 1 to 2 weeks after the incident. It is also interesting to note the relatiely insignificant amount of viewership on this particular article prior to these incdients.