Shaping information and knowledge on climate change technologies: A cross‐country qualitative analysis of carbon capture and storage results on Google search

• Autor(a) principal: Rowland, Jussara
• Data de Publicação: 2023
• Outros Autores: López‐Asensio, Sergi, Bagci, Ataberk, Delicado, Ana, Prades, Ana
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10451/59187

Commercial search engines play a central role in shaping, defining, andpromoting the information people have access to in contemporary societies.This is particularly true when it comes to emergent technologies, for whichthere is often limited available information in legacy media and other sources,thus having a strong bearing on public perceptions. In this article, we focus onhow the Google search engine promotes information on carbon capture andstorage (CCS). We explore how Google's ranking parameters and interfaceshape the information people access when searching for CCS through a quali-tative analysis comparing the results in three countries (France, Spain, andPortugal). We focus on the content of the first search engine result pages(SERP) and consider both Google's ranking criteria and the content and formatof promoted sources. The study reveals Google's influence in highlightingWikipedia pages, Q&A-formatted sources, and prioritizing online specializedmedia and private corporations. Additionally, we observe country-specific vari-ations in terms of actors and types of content, reflecting the level of interestand investment in the topic at the national level. These findings underscorethe significant role of search engine mediations in shaping public perceptionsand knowledge about emergent climate change technologies