The Web of Knowledge
Encyclopedias and Authority in the Digital Age

Giota Alevizou (Author)

9780745646282, Polity Press

Hardback, published 20 February 2026

336 pages
21.3 x 15.2 x 2.8 cm, 0.567 kg

"This fascinating genealogy reveals how encyclopedias - commercial and commons-based - influence the authoritative status of knowledge and why epistemic justice and resistance to biases depend on future choices about who controls the production, credibility, and accessibility of knowledge."
Robin Mansell, London School of Economics and Political Science

"This book shows encyclopedias have been reinvented for the digital age - reshaped by new media, changing institutions, and the politics of knowledge. Must-read!"
Jimmy Wales

"With the vast amount of information swirling around us, Giota Alevizou's new book is a crucial guide to how knowledge is being assembled, ordered and mediated, and to the profound consequences these structures have for meaning and knowing."
David Beer, University of York

"What happens to knowledge structures in the digital age? This book is timely, authoritative, and important – encyclopaedic in the best sense of the word."
Caroline Bassett, University of Cambridge

"An essential text for students and researchers of communication theory and digital media, Wikimedians and Wikipedians, as well as those who want to learn more about the modern history of the encyclopedia."
Matthew Vetter, International Journal of Communication

The encyclopedia has expanded in scope, scale, and popularity in the digital age. Wikipedia in particular serves as a gateway to information and a flashpoint for disputes over authority, expertise, and cultural perspectives.

This innovative book, which includes a foreword by the co-founder of Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales, traces the historical roots of digital encyclopedias in the early development of information science and cyberculture. It identifies trends within their digital evolution to reveal a complex web of relationships between media technology, knowledge, and culture. Using several case studies, Alevizou analyses how major technological shifts have impacted the publishing models, governance, and creative labour of reference works; the evolution of the genre and the modalities of representation and access; and the range of uses and symbolic meanings of encyclopedias as diverse nodes within broader information economies, as commodities and as public goods.

Filled with rich empirical insights, this engaging text reflects on how encyclopedias serve as informational media today and discusses their continued relevance in public communication and culture. The Web of Knowledge is essential reading for students and scholars of digital media, platform studies, and the political economy of knowledge.

Acknowledgement
Foreword by Jimmy Wales


Introduction

Part I: From Scroll to Platform: Genealogies, Media Technologies and Encyclopedic Knowledge
From Roots to Routes: Genealogies and Imaginaries of Encyclopedic Media
Encyclopedic Genres and the Digital Information Economy
Encyclopedic Dynamism and Epistemologies

Part II: Eras, Transitions, and Transformations
From Page to Screen: The Multimedia Era
From Paywalls to Platforms: Encyclopedias in the Digital Knowledge Economy
Editing ‘Authority’: Wikipedia and Commons Knowledge

Part III: Rationalising Authority: Encyclopedic Epistemologies in the Digital Age
Rewriting Authority: The Changing Value(s) of Encyclopedic Knowledge
Epistemic Qualities and AI Threats


Conclusion: The Politics of Knowing: Reflections on Uncertain Futures

Notes
References
Index

Subject Areas: Society & culture: general [JF]