Wikipedia API

1. The following graph will show how many views the Wikipedia page “Gun control” received over a three year time span.

guncontrol <- article_pageviews(article = "Gun control", start = as.Date("2017-7-1"), end = as.Date("2020-7-1"))

guncontrol %>% 
  ggplot(aes(x = date, y = views)) +
  geom_line(color = "black") +
  labs(x = "Date", y = "Wikipedia Views", title = "Views of Wikipedia's Gun Control Article")

As one may expect, there was an increase in views on the Gun control article following the 2017 and 2018 mass shootings in the United States. The most views the article got was at the beginning of 2018 with around 6,600 views. This is not surprising as it was right after the Florida mass shooting.

2. The following table shows the days in which the Wikipedia article “Gun control” received the most views.

guncontrol %>%
  arrange(-views)

NA

The Wikipedia article “Gun control” received the most views on February 16, 2018 with 6,549 views. This was two days after the Florida mass shooting. Coming in second place is the day before, February 15, with 6,117 views. The viewer may notice that out of the top 10 days the article was viewed, only one day was not in February 2018. In fourth place for the most views is October 3, 2017 which was two days after the Vegas mass shooting. In conclusion, the gun control article has received the most views on days after a mass shooting has occured.

3. Using the top articles function, the following will show what the top viewed articles were on Wikipedia the day after the Vegas and Florida shootings. The first data set shows the top viewed articles after the Vegas shooting. The second data set shows the top viewed articles after the Florida shooting.

top <- top_articles(start = as.Date("2017-10-02"))

top %>% 
  select(article, views) %>%
  filter(!article == "Main_Page", !article == "Special:Search")

top %>% 
  select(article, views) %>%
  filter(!article == "Main_Page", !article == "Special:Search") %>% 
  datatable(class = 'cell-border stripe') %>% 
  formatStyle("article", backgroundColor = "snow")

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According to the data table, the Wikipedia page for Tom Petty was the most viewed the day after the 2017 Vegas mass shooting with 2,133,306 views. 2017 Las Vegas Strip Shooting was in fourth place with 439,287 views. Associated with the 2017 shooting was Jason Aldean, who was performing at the time of the shooting. Jason Aldean was viewed 161,481 times making it seventh place overall. Unlike the upcoming data set regarding the 2018 Florida shooting, the 2017 Vegas shooting only has two articles associated with the shooting in the top 10 most viewed articles the day after the shooting.

top <- top_articles(start = as.Date("2018-02-15"))

top %>% 
  select(article, views) %>%
  filter(!article == "Main_Page", !article == "Special:Search")

top %>% 
  select(article, views) %>%
  filter(!article == "Main_Page", !article == "Special:Search") %>% 
  datatable(class = 'cell-border stripe') %>% 
  formatStyle("article", backgroundColor = "snow")

NA

According to the data table, the Wikipedia page for the Black Panther film was viewed the most with 306,608 views. Coming in second was the page Columbine High School Massacre with 299,033 views. The next article that had to do with a shooting comes in sixth place and was the page School Shootings in the United States. This page had 240,720 views. Lastly, the Wikipedia page Colt AR-14 comes in ninth place as most viewed with 202,735 views. This data shows that there were people researching associated topics following both the Vegas and Florida shootings, however, neither were the most viewed article on that day.

4. The following graph will show how many times the Wikipedia article “Gun control” was viewed one week prior to both the Vegas and Florida shootings as well as two weeks after the shootings had occurred.

Vegas <- article_pageviews(article = "Gun control",
                           start = as.Date("2017-09-24"),
                           end = as.Date("2017-10-15"))

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

Vegas %>% 
  ggplot(aes(x = day, y = views)) +
  geom_line()

Florida <- article_pageviews(article = "Gun control",
                           start = as.Date("2018-02-07"),
                           end = as.Date("2018-02-28"))

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

Florida %>% 
  ggplot(aes(x = day, y = views)) +
  geom_line()

shootings <- bind_rows(Vegas, Florida)

shootings %>% 
  ggplot(aes(x = day, y = views, color = event)) +
  geom_line() +
  theme_minimal() +
  labs(x = "Days before/after Shooting", 
       y = "Wikipedia Views", 
       color = "Event", 
       title = "Views of the Wikipedia Gun Control Article Before and After Two Mass Shootings")

The graph shows a clear trend that on the day of and about 2-3 days following both shootings, there was a major increase in views on the gun control article. At the peak number of views around the time of the Vegas shooting, the gun control article was viewed around a little less than 4,500 times. In contrast, around the time of the Florida shooting, the top views of the gun control article were around 6,500 views. Furthermore, unlike with the Vegas shooting, the Florida shooting saw a little spike in views on the gun control aricle about 7 days after it had occured. After that, the views seemed to be mostly on a downward trend.