Lecture Notes: Information Studies and the Impact of Search Engines

Introduction

• Speaker: Information Studies Professor
• Focus: Knowledge and information available to the public via search engines
• Importance of search engines over libraries/teachers in understanding the world

Research on Search Engine Results

Search Results for "Black Girls"

• Started collecting search results in 2009
• 2009: "hotblackpussy.com" top result
• 2011: "sugaryblackpussy.com" top result
• Pornography dominated search results for women and girls of color

Impact of Misrepresentation

• Misrepresentation of women, especially women and girls of color, by search engines
• Lack of content on actual "girls" on the front page
• Sexism in search results: women coded as girls and pornified

Efforts to Publish Findings

• Attempt to write for Essence Magazine, rejected
• Successfully pitched to Bitch Magazine, a feminist magazine, by challenging its visibility in Google search results
• Highlighted the difficulty in finding feminist media unless specifically searching for feminism

Media Representation and Search Engines

• Wrote about Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman case
• Auto-suggestions influence perceptions and are linked to advertisers
• Reputational characterization via search results

Conceptual Searches

• Example: "beautiful" search results dominated by white beauty norms
• Challenges claims of personalization affecting search results

Search Engines vs. Information Retrieval

• Search engines utilize advertising algorithms, not information retrieval algorithms
• Results linked to commercial viability

Examples of Search Engine Manipulation

Mike Brown's Search Results

• Search results focus on the shooting rather than personal narratives
• Companies profit from leading users to specific types of results

Case Study: Dylan Roof

• Roof's racial identity influenced by Google search for "black on white crime"
• Council of Conservative Citizens: a cloaked white supremacist site
• Lack of legitimate information on FBI statistics dominance of misinformation

The Role of Libraries and Information Access

• Libraries in schools and public spaces are closing
• Misconception that Google can replace libraries
• Importance of social responsibility for information dissemination

Stereotypes and Information Bias

• Persistence of old stereotypes about black women and girls
• Need for investigation and interrogation of information spaces

Conclusion

• Rise of inequality despite data/technology advances
• Information bias affects societal and democratic goals
• Encouragement for further investigation and solutions to information challenges

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• Recommended Readings & Works:
  • "Algorithms of Oppression" by the speaker
  • Jesse Daniels' "Cyber Racism"
• Key Takeaways: Importance of scrutinizing and understanding the role of commercial search engines in shaping public knowledge and narrative.