ip3:
_ALGORITHMS
An exploration of content prioritization, its functionality, implications, tech companies' agendas, and how algorithms reinforce oppression.
Content Prioritization
Content prioritization refers to how algorithms rank web pages in search engine results. These algorithms are also known as page ranking algorithms.
According to Choudhary & Shankar Burdak (2012), “ranking algorithms are used by the search engines to present the search results by considering the relevance, importance and content score and web mining techniques to order them according to the user interest” (p.3). Popular page ranking algorithms include Google’s PageRank, Weighted Page Rank, The HITS Algorithm, Distance Rank Algorithm, and The EigenRumor Algorithm.
In How Search Algorithms Work, Google explains that ranking systems for content prioritization consist of multiple algorithms that “look at many factors, including the words of your query, relevance and usability of pages, expertise of sources, and your location and settings” (Google, 2022).
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Let’s look at an example. If I search for “café” (coffee in Spanish) on Google, the first page shows me the most popular coffee shops and cafés in Lima, particularly those that are close to my house. Also, a Wikipedia article is prioritized given its high usability and relevance.
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Let’s try another one. If I search for “jazz trumpeter” the results I get are big names such as Miles Davis, Louis Armstrong, and Dizzy Gillespie. How does this happen? Google’s page ranking algorithms assign a numerical weighting to each element of a hyperlinked set of documents, such as webpages on the internet, with the purpose of measuring its relative importance within the set. If Miles Davis is showing up in first place, then this means his name is the most popular across all pages within the ‘jazz trumpeter’ set.
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But content prioritization is not necessarily neutral or objective. In Algorithms of Oppression Noble (2019) argues that “Google functions in the interests of its most influential paid advertisers or through an intersection of popular and commercial interests” (p.36). This statement implies that what rises at the top of the search pile is not necessarily what’s most popular. For example, Noble (2019) notes that research has shown how “Google directs web traffic to mainstream corporate news conglomerates, which increases their ability to shape the political discourse” (p.49). Hence, it can be said that content prioritization can induce users to think a particular way and want certain things to fulfill political and economic agendas.
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Reinforcing Opression
Google prioritization algorithms have been consequential for those already systematically oppressed, creating problematic representations of women, people of color, and other marginalized groups, and furthering economic and social inequality. Noble (2018) provides some examples of this, such as how in 2010 she googled “black girls” to search for interesting activities for her stepdaughter and nieces. She was horrified to find that all top results were pornographic websites with derogatory labels towards black women. Noble (2018) argues that this process “reflects a corporate logic of either willful neglect or a profit imperative that makes money from racism and sexism” (p.5).
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It is imperative to bring awareness to these issues because digital media platforms are usually characterized as neutral technologies in the public domain and even academia. Crawford (2021) notes that the problem isn’t only about biased datasets or unfair algorithms but it’s also “indicative of a more persistent problem of researchers actively reproducing ideas that damage vulnerable communities and reinforce current injustices” (p.29). As observed by Noble (2018), we can expect that content prioritization and artificial intelligence in general “will become a major human rights issue in the twenty-first century” (p.1).
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Impact on my life
As someone who uses Google on a daily basis to search for content, PageRank has had a significant impact on my personal life. Many decisions I’ve taken that shaped how my life is today have been influenced by how Google ranked content for me.
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Here are some examples, to name a few:
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I found the MET program while searching for “online masters degree in Canada” on Google.
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Similarly, most of the research I conduct to create educational materials for my students, completing assignments in the MET program, or developing any project, comes from accessing the first couple of pages that Google prioritizes for me. This has profound implications because my view of reality and how I experience and influence the world is based on knowledge construction processes that are a result of the information displayed to me through content prioritization algorithms.
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With this in mind, it is accurate to say that Google is, in some ways, shaping our personalities and the courses of our lives. This can be problematic if we consider Noble's (2018) suggestion of the political and economic agendas behind content prioritization strategies, particularly for those who are most vulnerable, such as children and young adults. It's also important to understand that this has social implications because our (constructed) view of reality has an effect on the people we interact with, such as our students, family, and communities.
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While it’s true that every click on a hyperlink and hyperlinks I could establish on a website have an effect on the ranking system, from an individual perspective this is minimal and insubstantial. Having an impact on PageRank would require a collective input, which reflects the social nature of the internet and how humans construct the world and ideological realities through complex interconnections that spam all across time.
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references
Choudhary, L., & Burdak, B. S. (2012). Role of ranking algorithms for information retrieval.https://doi.org/10.5121/ijaia.2012.3415
Crawford, K. (2021). The Atlas of AI. Yale University Press.
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Google (2022). How Search Algorithms Work. https://www.google.com/search/howsearchworks/algorithms/
Noble, S. U. (2018). Algorithms of oppression. New York University Press.