Airing Grievances Online: Search Engine Algorithms and the Fate of Minorities at Risk

ABSTRACT This paper examines the role search engine algorithms have in ethnopolitical mobilization. Offline, the news media are vital in a minority at risk (MAR) group's message dissemination. As Tarrow (1994) explains, they are a valuable “external resource.” We argue search engine algorithms perform a similar external resource function mediating what sites get reported as top-ranked search results. The paper addresses whether an association exists between the number of MAR advocacy Web sites protesting a MAR's plight within a search engines' (Google) top 30 search results and the level of grievance a MAR group experiences or the available open opportunity structures. We hypothesize and find that a MAR's grievance level—rather than the availability of open opportunity structures—is vital in explaining the role of search engines in ethnopolitical mobilization.

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