Beneficial to scholars and students in the fields of media and communication, politics and technology, this book outlines the significant role of search engines in general and Google in particular in widening the digital divide between individuals, organisations and states. It uses innovative methods and research approaches to assess and illustrate the digital divide by comparing the popular search queries in Google and Yahoo in different countries as well as analysing the various biases in Google News and Google Earth. The different studies developed and presented in this book provide various indications of the increasing customisation and popularisation mechanisms employed by popular search engines, which together with organising the world s information inevitably also intensify information inequalities and reinforce commercial and US-centric priorities and agendas.
Develops an extensive historical investigation of information, power and the digital divideProvides new social and political perspectives to understand search engines in general and Google in particularSuggests original methods to study and assess the digital divide as well as the extent of commercialisation and Americanisation worldwide"

Semantic Network Analysis in Social Sciences introduces the fundamentals of semantic network analysis and its applications in the social sciences. Readers learn how to easily transform any given text into a visual network of words co-occurring together, a process that allows mapping the main themes appearing in the text and revealing its main narratives and biases. Semantic network analysis is particularly useful today with the increasing volumes of text-based information available. It is one of the developing, cutting-edge methods to organize, identify patterns and structures, and understand the meanings of our information society. The first chapters in this book offer step-by-step guidelines for conducting semantic network analysis, including choosing and preparing the text, selecting desired words, constructing the networks, and interpreting their meanings. Free software tools and code are also presented. The rest of the book displays state-of-the-art studies from around the world that apply this method to explore news, political speeches, social media content, and even to organize interview transcripts and literature reviews. Aimed at scholars with no previous knowledge in the field, this book can be used as a main or a supplementary textbook for general courses on research methods or network analysis courses, as well as a starting point to conduct your own content analysis of large texts.

Semantic Network Analysis in Social Sciences introduces the fundamentals of semantic network analysis and its applications in the social sciences. Readers learn how to easily transform any given text into a visual network of words co-occurring together, a process that allows mapping the main themes appearing in the text and revealing its main narratives and biases. Semantic network analysis is particularly useful today with the increasing volumes of text-based information available. It is one of the developing, cutting-edge methods to organize, identify patterns and structures, and understand the meanings of our information society. The first chapters in this book offer step-by-step guidelines for conducting semantic network analysis, including choosing and preparing the text, selecting desired words, constructing the networks, and interpreting their meanings. Free software tools and code are also presented. The rest of the book displays state-of-the-art studies from around the world that apply this method to explore news, political speeches, social media content, and even to organize interview transcripts and literature reviews. Aimed at scholars with no previous knowledge in the field, this book can be used as a main or a supplementary textbook for general courses on research methods or network analysis courses, as well as a starting point to conduct your own content analysis of large texts.

Why are some countries more newsworthy than others? What are the similarities and differences in the scope of international news presented in different languages and cultures? How does international news affect our perception of the world? In this book, Elad Segev explores international news flow on the internet by addressing these key questions. Segev provides a comparative analysis of the international scope of online newspapers, news portals, and news aggregators in different languages and cultures, using innovative web mining techniques and network analysis. This book explores the theory of news flow around the world, and analyses many of its dimensions such as the global standing of the United States, the Middle Eastern conflicts as seen around the world, and, the effect of financial news. In doing so, the book unveils new patterns, meanings and implications of international news on our perception of the world. Following these insights, the author discusses the opportunities and challenges of studying international news flow online in the future, and how this field of research can be further developed theoretically and empirically.

Why are some countries more newsworthy than others? What are the similarities and differences in the scope of international news presented in different languages and cultures? How does international news affect our perception of the world? In this book, Elad Segev explores international news flow on the internet by addressing these key questions. Segev provides a comparative analysis of the international scope of online newspapers, news portals, and news aggregators in different languages and cultures, using innovative web mining techniques and network analysis. This book explores the theory of news flow around the world, and analyses many of its dimensions such as the global standing of the United States, the Middle Eastern conflicts as seen around the world, and, the effect of financial news. In doing so, the book unveils new patterns, meanings and implications of international news on our perception of the world. Following these insights, the author discusses the opportunities and challenges of studying international news flow online in the future, and how this field of research can be further developed theoretically and empirically.