Understanding Change in Web Search.readings

back to [Courses: understanding change in web search](/courses/s2023-LB322B)
Here are the assigned readings as listed on the initial draft of the syllabus—interspersed with some assignment details.

M1: Attending

Re-seeing. So what? Raising questions.

session 1: intros

session 2: shaping

  • reading:
    • @introna2000shaping

session 3: goals (or: search results)

  • readings:
    • @couvering2007relevance [pp. 866--867, pp. 871-885, SKIM the rest]
    • @gillespie2014relevance [pp. 167--169, pp. 191--192]
    • @sundin2021relevance

session 4: user responsibility (or: literacy & queries)

  • readings:
    • @tripodi2018searching [pp. 27--34]
    • @caulfield2019data
    • @lurie2021searching_facctrec [p. 8 Analyzing Information Seekers]
    • @hendry2008conceptual (SKIM)

session 5: money (or: advertising)

  • readings:
    • @ftc2013sample
    • @daly2017profiling [pp. 307-308, the two paragraphs starting at "Ofcom" and "This research was followed by a further Ofcom report" and p. 313 Paid-for Advertising]
    • @asher-schapiro2022gaming

session 6: voids

  • readings:
    • @diresta2018complexity
    • @golebiewski2018data
    • related:
      • @golebiewski2019data

session 7: harms

  • readings:
    • @noble2018algorithms [pp. 66--86]

M2: Infrastructures, components, & interactions

How does it work? Understanding the mechanisms and functions.

session 8: Handoff

  • in-class:
    • workshopping Module 1 assignment
    • Handoff lecture [@mulligan2020concept]

session 9: infrastructures

  • readings:
    • @haider2019invisible [pp. 49--72 The materialities of search]
    • related:
      • @sundin2020where

session 10: quality control (or: search content moderation)

  • readings:
    • @gillespie2018custodians [pp. 184--187]
    • @gillespie2017algorithmically

session 11: hidden workers (or: search quality raters)

  • readings:
    • @meisner2022labor
    • @google2022sqeg [read: 2.3 Your Money or Your Life (YMYL) Topics & 4.2 Harmful to Self or Other Individuals & 4.4 Harmfully Misleading Information; search the PDF for [health] and read those items; SKIM the rest]

session 12:

reactivity (or: search engine optimization (SEO))

  • readings:
    • @ziewitz2019rethinking
    • @noble2018algorithms [pp. 86-90 "How Pornification Happened to “Black Girls” in the Search Engine"]
    • https://developers.google.com/search/docs [SKIM]
    • related:
      • @lewandowski2021influence

session 13

  • in-class:
    • workshopping Module 2 assignment
    • exploring Module 3 cases and identifying teams

session 14: alternative search tools

  • in-class: explorations

session 15: alternative search tools

  • in-class: explorations

M3: Case studies in web search for health, healthcare, and medicine

How do people use search? How search do engines shape searching? How do we use search to inform or shape interventions? Who?

Students will break into 8 teams to lead 1/2 of a class session for the these four weeks. All readings will be identified prior to Spring Break.

Readings selected for student-facilitated classes included:
  • Climate change
    • @haider2023google
  • COVID-19 & “infodemic’
    • @simon2021autopsy
    • @toepfl2022plotters
    • @sundin2021relevance
  • Queer healthcare
    • @augustaitis2021online
    • @kreines2018quality
  • Reproductive health & abortion
    • @upadhyay2023using
    • @hassard2020digital
  • Dr. Google Meme
    • @boyle2023physicians
  • Vaccinations
    • @ghezzi2020online

M4: Reimagining search

  • general readings:
    • @hendry2008conceptual [pp. 278-279 The question...; pp. 301--305 Discussion & Conclusion]
    • @vaidhyanathan2011googlization [pp. 200--204 Imagining a Better Way]
    • @noble2018algorithms [pp. 134--152 The Future of Knowledge in the Public OR 153--169 The Future of Information Culture; pp. 179--181 Imagining Alternatives: Toward Public Noncommercial Search]
    • @shah2022situating
    • @sundin2021relevance [pp. 5--6 Ideas for Future Research]
    • @lewandowski2019web
While students mostly did group activities or group work focused on developing their projects, I did brief presentations. Specifically assigned or examined readings for this module included:

session 22: imagining and crafting

“Ultimately, my hope is for you, the reader, to imagine and craft the worlds you cannot live without, just as you dismantle the ones we cannot live within.” (p. 14)

session 23: scripts & articulations

Presented w/ excerpts from:

  • @akrich1992scription
  • @mulligan2018rescripting
  • @selbst2019fairness
  • @lurie2021searching_facctrec
  • @gillespie2014relevance
  • @griffin2022search

session 24: counternarratives, counter stories, counter-imaginaries

Presented w/ excerpts from:

  • @gillespie2014relevance
  • @skrubbeltrang2017ripinstagram

session 25: interpretive flexibility

Presented w/ reference to:

  • @pinch1984social
  • @narayanan2022google
  • @tripodi2018searching
  • @vertesi2019affordances
  • @nissenbaum2011preemption

session 26: web search and sexism

A student requested I cover this in more depth.

Presented w/ excerpts from:

  • @noble2018algorithms
  • @cadwalladr2016google
  • @urman2022foreign
  • @tripodi2021ms
  • @dave2022google
  • @ogilvy2013autocomplete

session 27: project time

session 28: project time