Trevisan, Filippo, Hoskins, Andrew, Oates, Sarah and Mahlouly, Dounia (2018) 'The Google voter: search engines and electoral information flows in the new media ecology.' Information, Communication and Society, 21 (1). pp. 111-128.
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Abstract
This paper explores key Internet search trends for electoral information vis-à-vis the broader media ecology in the UK and the US. An innovative methodology is introduced that maps the informational trajectories of key election events by combining Google Trends data linked to significant news events during the campaigns. While the research found spikes of search that suggested a seemingly trivial event in the US could drive voters to search out deeper information on related policy issues, the study did not find the same phenomenon in the UK. This invites a reflection on the opportunities available to Internet users/voters in the changing informational landscape and how scholars can leverage Google Trends records to better understand how voters seek information in new and evolving media ecologies.
| Item Type: | Journal Article |
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| Keywords: | Google Trends, elections, Internet search, media ecology, UK, US |
| SOAS Departments & Centres: | Departments and Subunits > Interdisciplinary Studies > Centre for Global Media and Communications |
| ISSN: | 1369118X |
| Copyright Statement: | © 2016 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| DOI (Digital Object Identifier): | https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2016.1261171 |
| Date Deposited: | 03 Jun 2019 13:50 |
| URI: | https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/id/eprint/31124 |
| Funders: | Economic and Social Research Council |
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