"Curated by a global team of six economists, this database covers millions of historical figures, using factors like Wikipedia page views, number of Wikipedia editions, and Wikipedia word counts to quantify renown."
As an editor, I always find these metrics *really* funny. A good friend of mine is currently going through making articles for all Alexander McQueen's collections -- all in-depth with great care and detail, going through Wikipedia's highest levels of peer review, which itself increases both page views and translations (editors on other projects prioritize quality-reviewed articles). She's writing the bad ones first, because they're easier.
I think you've nailed it, pre 1955 if you weren't a politician or an actor and maybe played football in Europe or South America it is hard to argue that the person was anything like what we would call famous now.
I also think the push alerts are a very interesting area. In the UK the BBC News App is used by around 12m each quarter (around one in four adults in the country) many of those have the push alerts on (Have never seen exact numbers) so the person(s) who choose the text for those alerts are probably the most influential journalists in the UK. How they choose to word a reaction to new inflation figures or the government's financial announcements has huge influence on how millions of people think about these subjects.
"Curated by a global team of six economists, this database covers millions of historical figures, using factors like Wikipedia page views, number of Wikipedia editions, and Wikipedia word counts to quantify renown."
As an editor, I always find these metrics *really* funny. A good friend of mine is currently going through making articles for all Alexander McQueen's collections -- all in-depth with great care and detail, going through Wikipedia's highest levels of peer review, which itself increases both page views and translations (editors on other projects prioritize quality-reviewed articles). She's writing the bad ones first, because they're easier.
I think you've nailed it, pre 1955 if you weren't a politician or an actor and maybe played football in Europe or South America it is hard to argue that the person was anything like what we would call famous now.
I also think the push alerts are a very interesting area. In the UK the BBC News App is used by around 12m each quarter (around one in four adults in the country) many of those have the push alerts on (Have never seen exact numbers) so the person(s) who choose the text for those alerts are probably the most influential journalists in the UK. How they choose to word a reaction to new inflation figures or the government's financial announcements has huge influence on how millions of people think about these subjects.
Could it be that people are dying younger in general over time? It sure feels that way sometimes.
So there are more celebrities but not a higher percentage dying?