Ballatore, Andrea (2015) Google chemtrails: a methodology to analyze topic representation in search engine results. First Monday 20 (7), ISSN 1396-0466.
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2015-Ballatore-Google_chemtrails.pdf - Published Version of Record Available under License Creative Commons Attribution. Download (1MB) | Preview |
Abstract
Search engine results influence the visibility of different viewpoints in political, cultural, and scientific debates. Treating search engines as editorial products with intrinsic biases can help understand the structure of information flows in new media. This paper outlines an empirical methodology to analyze the representation of topics in search engines, reducing the spatial and temporal biases in the results. As a case study, the methodology is applied to 15 popular conspiracy theories, examining type of content and ideological bias, demonstrating how this approach can inform debates in this field, specifically in relation to the representation of non-mainstream positions, the suppression of controversies and relativism.
Metadata
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Keyword(s) / Subject(s): | search engines, media bias, search engine bias, media analysis, conspiracy theories, spatio-temporal bias |
| School: | Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of Social Sciences |
| Research Centres and Institutes: | Data Analytics, Birkbeck Institute for |
| Depositing User: | Andrea Ballatore |
| Date Deposited: | 07 Apr 2016 11:06 |
| Last Modified: | 02 Aug 2023 17:23 |
| URI: | https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/14876 |
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