Making the invisible visible: Critical discourse analysis as a tool for search engine research

Abstract

Like information science more broadly, search engine research has largely been fragmented into two factions: system-oriented and user-oriented studies. This limits our capacity for answering some fundamental questions surrounding an integral—often invisible—part of modern life. Given the “search-ification” of this life, given an oligopolous global market and an information-wealthy but attention-poor audience, methods capable of studying search engines, as well as their relationship with users and society are increasingly necessary. This paper proposes critical discourse analysis (CDA) as an effectual, oft-overlooked method for search engine research, one capable of interrogating both search engines and their use. The paper outlines CDA, provides examples of its application, and highlights its capacity for progressing our critical understanding of search engines. This developing understanding, evidenced by a review of the literature, suggests that challenges brought by search cannot be resolved by critiquing the power of systems alone. Rather, a reclaiming of today's information infrastructure requires we also illuminate the socio-political environments of search systems, and the metacognitive, invisible processes pivotal to our communication with them. While power-analyses of search continue, and some have begun to employ CDA, little recognition exists of this theoretical perspective's capacity for supporting both system-oriented and user-oriented studies.