New Readers/Messaging for Nigeria

As part of the New Readers project, the Wikimedia Foundation is piloting approaches to raising Wikipedia awareness in Nigeria.

These efforts are led by community insight and direction, informing both recommended promotional channels and messaging. This page collects that community direction, summarizing the results of a survey of 92 Nigerian Wikimedians conducted from December 2016 through January 2017.

Challenge

Just 23% of Nigerians polled in a 2016 phone survey had ever heard of Wikipedia. This critically low awareness threatens the future of Wikimedia projects in the region. Without recognizing or understanding Wikipedia, internet users in Nigeria cannot make habitual use of Wikipedia, advocate for free knowledge, or participate in Wikimedia projects.

Objectives

Determine the best ways to explain Wikipedia and its use cases to new readers in Nigeria by asking people who live and work there.

Statements to reliably introduce Wikipedia
Set of clear and common Wikipedia use cases
Guidance on imagery to explain and promote Wikipedia
Recommended media formats for reaching and influencing people in target region

Summary of Findings

According to Nigerian community respondents, Wikipedia is a free online library where you can learn almost anything.

It is an encyclopedia.
It acts like a generous know-it-all.
It will help you learn about the world and grow as a person.
It looks like a library, and it is made by people (like you).

Wikipedia should be promoted in schools and explained with videos.

Social media and radio are also recommended as places to introduce and explain Wikipedia to Nigerians.

Detailed Findings

Introducing Wikipedia

There were 3 questions in the survey about how to explain Wikipedia. In tabulating results, we tallied answers that appeared more than 2 times (for specific word) and 5 times (for specific topics). These collected responses are shown in the charts below:

Explaining Wikipedia in 1 word
Word	Responses
Encyclopedia	30
Knowledge	21
Information	5
Facts	2

If Wikipedia were a person it would be
Characteristic	Responses
A know-it-all	24
Generous	11
A teacher	5

Explaining Wikipedia in 1 sentence

There was no single consensus statement used to describe Wikipedia, but many responses featured a common structure of [Cost] + [technology detail] + [knowledge object] + [user benefit / user participation]

Example: "A free online library where you can learn almost anything"

Wikipedia use cases

There were 2 questions in the survey about how Wikipedia use cases. In tabulating results, we tallied answers that appeared more than 2 times (for specific word) and 5 times (for specific topics). These collected responses are shown in the charts below:

Try Wikipedia it's great for
Use	Responses
Learning	36
Information/answers	24
A teacher	12

One thing for a new user to know about Wikipedia...
Thing	Responses
Information & answers	20
A place to learn	19
It's made by people	14
It's free	5

Visualizing Wikipedia

33 participants shared web images to describe Wikipedia. Common visual elements that were repeated 5 times or more were tabulated to create the following chart:

Describing Wikipedia in imagery
Themes	Responses
Books/libraries	13
Wikipedia icons	9
People collaborating	7
Prestigious/esteemed institutions	7
Computers	2

How to promote Wikipedia

Participants could select up to 10 recommendations from a pre-developed set. The resulting vote shows preference for school promotions, video, and social media posts:

Recommended approaches to promoting Wikipedia in Nigeria
Approach	Responses
School promotions	65
Video	59
Social Media posts	41
Radio announcements	34
Posters	33
Government partnerships	33
Newspaper articles	31
TV advertisements	26
Wiki pages	25
Celebrity ambassadors	22
Other	11