Google: The Role of Internet Search in Elections in Established and Challenged Democracies

搜索引擎如何帮助选民了解选举？社会科学家早就注意到，知情的公民对维持民主至关重要，而专制政权则以控制信息流为标志。虽然互联网，尤其是搜索引擎，为公民获取信息提供了前所未有的新途径，但很少有具体的研究表明，选民在竞选活动中如何利用搜索引擎来完成收集信息的民主任务。这是一个特别重要的问题，因为搜索引擎结果本身将反映和优先考虑公民的偏好。老牌民主国家的公民的搜索方式与新兴民主国家的公民不同吗？他们喜欢什么样的搜索词——候选人、政党、思想、价值观、宗教或其他主题？搜索模式是否倾向于将公民引导到信息“茧”或“轨迹”中，其传统信息来源范围狭窄，如政党网站和主流媒体，或者搜索引擎的行为是否倾向于不断地将个人暴露在广泛的政治信息中？透过谷歌Trends搜集的跨国搜寻引擎行为研究，本计划将利用搜寻选择与受欢迎程度的力量，检视人们在选举中如何及何时选择搜集资讯，范围从美国相对常规的选举到伊朗潜在的不稳定局势。通过比较建立民主国家（英国和美国）、挑战民主国家（意大利）和过渡国家（埃及、俄罗斯和伊朗）的公民如何在竞选活动中使用搜索引擎，该项目将揭示搜索引擎在关键政治事件期间如何在信息传播中发挥作用。我们将结合政治传播研究的方法和途径，重点是社会学，政治学和媒体研究。

How do search engines contribute to voter knowledge in elections? Social scientists have long noted that informed citizens are critical to sustaining democracy, while authoritarian regimes are marked by their control of information flow. While the internet in general, and search engines in particular, provide new and unprecedented ways for citizens to access information, there has been little specific research into how voters employ search engines as they carry out the democratic task of gathering information in election campaigns. This is a particularly important question, as search engine results themselves will come to reflect and prioritize citizen preferences. Do citizens in established democracies search in ways that differ from those in newer democracies? What sorts of search terms - candidates, parties, ideas, values, religions or other themes - do they favour? Do search patterns tend to direct citizens into information 'cocoons' or 'trajectories' with a narrow range of traditional information sources such as party websites and dominant media outlets or does search engine behaviour tend to continually expose individuals to a broad range of political messages? Through a transnational study of search engine behaviour, primarily gathered via Google Trends, this project will use the power of search choices and popularity to examine how and when people are choosing to gather information in elections ranging from relatively routine in the United States to the potentially destabilising in Iran. Through comparing how citizens in established democracies (the United Kingdom and the United States), challenged democracies (Italy) and transitional states (Egypt, Russia and Iran) use search engines in election campaigns, this project will reveal how search engines function in the dissemination of information during critical political events. We will combine methods and approaches across political communication research, with a focus on sociology, political science and media studies.