- 著者
-
宇田川 敦史
- 出版者
- 日本マス・コミュニケーション学会
- 雑誌
- マス・コミュニケーション研究 (ISSN:13411306)
- 巻号頁・発行日
- vol.94, pp.131-149, 2019-01-31 (Released:2019-06-06)
- 参考文献数
- 23
Rankings are ubiquitous forms of media in our daily life. In particular, rankingsof search engine results are one of the most commonly encountered media.However, most users are not aware of how web pages are ranked by searchengines and even the fact that search engine results are ranked. This meanssearch engines are “black-boxes” and rankings as a form of media are“obscured”. The purpose of this study is to clarify how this black-box andobscured media environment has been constructed by chronologically analyzingmajor personal computer magazines in the United States during the Web1.0era. This is a historical analysis of discourses regarding search engine rankingsand the World Wide Web in general.As a result, this study clarifies the following three conclusions. First, theWorld Wide Web was originally considered a plaything, like “web-surfing,”before becoming a tool for searching information. Secondly, tools for searchingwebpages changed from semantic directories to computational rankings. Lastly,discourse explaining computational technology gradually disappeared as a resultof a change in the search engine environment from over-competition to monopolization. Through this historical process, search engine rankings as media became“black-boxes” and implicit trust in the rankings were constructed. Consequently,users came to unconsciously consider only the top-ranked contents and rankingsas a form became obscured. This result suggests that the implicit trust inthese black-box platforms can potentially amplify “trolling” or “fake news.” Thestudy contributes to understanding how digital platforms affect daily communications,applying a media studies perspective.