What you google is where you are from: Power and proximity in the global information flow of online searches

IF 3 3区管理学 Q1 COMMUNICATION

Information Society Pub Date : 2022-03-11 DOI:10.1080/01972243.2022.2027588

E. Segev, Sandrine Boudana

{"title":"What you google is where you are from: Power and proximity in the global information flow of online searches","authors":"E. Segev, Sandrine Boudana","doi":"10.1080/01972243.2022.2027588","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Abstract What information do people search about other countries and why? In this study we coded and analyzed more than 15,000 Google searches related to France and Spain during a 16-year period, from 18 countries with diverse characteristics and relationships with France and Spain. We coded these search queries into topical categories. We also collected country-level variables to reflect the power of each country and its proximity to France and Spain. We studied the associations between the components of power and proximity of countries and their search topics. Our findings reveal that the power and proximity of the searching countries can predict much of their search topics with some specific differences between France and Spain. While economically powerful countries tend to search more for travel destinations, poorer countries search more for sports. Richer countries with geographic proximity tend to search for shopping and transportation, while poorer countries with historical and cultural proximity search more for language and education opportunities. We propose an integrative model to assess the different dimensions of power and proximity of countries and discuss the implications of our findings to theories of global information flows.","PeriodicalId":51481,"journal":{"name":"Information Society","volume":"38 1","pages":"79 - 99"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0000,"publicationDate":"2022-03-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Information Society","FirstCategoryId":"91","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/01972243.2022.2027588","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"COMMUNICATION","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Abstract What information do people search about other countries and why? In this study we coded and analyzed more than 15,000 Google searches related to France and Spain during a 16-year period, from 18 countries with diverse characteristics and relationships with France and Spain. We coded these search queries into topical categories. We also collected country-level variables to reflect the power of each country and its proximity to France and Spain. We studied the associations between the components of power and proximity of countries and their search topics. Our findings reveal that the power and proximity of the searching countries can predict much of their search topics with some specific differences between France and Spain. While economically powerful countries tend to search more for travel destinations, poorer countries search more for sports. Richer countries with geographic proximity tend to search for shopping and transportation, while poorer countries with historical and cultural proximity search more for language and education opportunities. We propose an integrative model to assess the different dimensions of power and proximity of countries and discuss the implications of our findings to theories of global information flows.

查看原文本刊更多论文

你的谷歌就是你来自哪里:在线搜索的全球信息流中的权力和接近

人们搜索其他国家的哪些信息?为什么?在这项研究中，我们编码并分析了16年间来自18个国家的15,000多亿次与法国和西班牙相关的搜索，这些国家具有不同的特征和与法国和西班牙的关系。我们将这些搜索查询编码为主题类别。我们还收集了国家层面的变量，以反映每个国家的实力及其与法国和西班牙的接近程度。我们研究了权力组成部分与国家邻近程度及其搜索主题之间的关系。我们的研究结果表明，搜索国家的权力和邻近性可以预测他们的搜索主题，法国和西班牙之间有一些具体的差异。经济强大的国家倾向于更多地搜索旅游目的地，而较贫穷的国家则更多地搜索体育项目。地理位置接近的富裕国家倾向于搜索购物和交通，而历史和文化接近的贫穷国家则更多地搜索语言和教育机会。我们提出了一个综合模型来评估国家权力和邻近程度的不同维度，并讨论了我们的研究结果对全球信息流理论的影响。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Information Society Multiple-

CiteScore

5.00

自引率

0.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： The Information Society is a multidisciplinary journal intended to answer questions about the Information Age. It provides a forum for thoughtful commentary and discussion of significant topics in the world of information, such as transborder data flow, regulatory issues, the impact of the information industry, information as a determinant of public and private organizational performance, and information and the sovereignty of the public and private organizational performance, and information and the sovereignty of the public. Its papers analyze information policy issues affecting society. Because of the journal"s international perspective, it will have worldwide appeal to scientists and policymakers in government, education, and industry.