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Reading Between the Lines of Data: Critical Data Literacy, Wikidata, and Sappho

Insight – Featured Image © Articulations / M. Schwindt (AI assistance: Firefly Image 3)

Insight – Featured Image © Articulations / M. Schwindt (AI assistance: Firefly Image 3)
Image Credit: Curatioral Statement – Featured Image © Articulations / M. Schwindt (AI assistance: Firefly Image 1)

Laura Untner – 2025

In Digital Humanities and Computational Literary Studies, platforms like Wikidata are crucial for retrieving structured data. But how reliable is this data? This insight looks at Sappho's Wikidata entry (Q17892) as a case study to explore issues of data accuracy, misinformation, and the impact of cultural reception. Even though Wikidata's openness allows for extensive data accumulation, it also means fact and fiction can easily become conflated. This insight examines instances of inaccuracies in Sappho's biography as stated in Wikidata, including the perpetuation of myths, such as her supposed leap from a cliff on Lefkada. The examples show how digital data resources like Wikidata reflect not only historical uncertainty but also centuries of reinterpretation and myth-making. This raises important questions: How should contested or unreliable data be handled? And how can verified knowledge be distinguished from the narratives that shape it? By critically engaging with Sappho's Wikidata entry, this insight highlights the importance of data quality and critical data literacy, which serves as a timely reminder that digital data is shaped by interpretation as much as it is by information.

Title
Reading Between the Lines of Data: Critical Data Literacy, Wikidata, and Sappho
Publisher
EXC 2020 Temporal Communities
Location
Berlin
Keywords
Article; RA 5: Building Digital Communities
Date
2025-06-15
Appeared in
Articulations – Curated Collection | Dîlan Canan Çakir (Ed.). Data
Type
Text
Coverage
This publication is the result of work carried out in Research Area 5: Building Digital Communities.
How to cite:
Laura Untner. 'Reading Between the Lines of Data: Critical Data Literacy, Wikidata, and Sappho'. In 'Data', ed. Dîlan Canan Çakir. Articulations (June 2025): https://doi.org/10.60949/JX24-FA02.