Search engines in polarized media environment

Auditing political information curation on Google and Bing prior to 2024 US elections

Bibliographic Data

ID23311531
AuthorsMykola Makhortykh (0000-0001-7143-5317, University of Bern, corresponding author), Tobias Rohrbach (0000-0002-0151-1377), Tobias Rorhbach (University of Bern), Maryna Sydorova (0000-0001-7795-0459, University of Bern), Elizaveta Kuznetsova (0000-0002-3614-1804, University of Bern)
Year2026
Pages1-18
Publication date2026-07-28
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Information Technology & Politics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1933-169X • E-ISSN: 1933-1681
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/19331681.2026.2701758
OpenAlexW4406271095
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited50

Search engines (SEs) influence how individuals are informed about election-related developments and perceive the environment in which elections take place. It has particular implications for (perceived) polarization, especially if SEs’ curation leads to a skewed treatment of information sources; however, until now, it is unclear how different SE factors may affect the emergence of such a partisan gap. To address this shortcoming, we audit the two largest Western SEs, Google and Bing, prior to the 2024 US presidential elections and examine how retrieval of election-related information varies depending on the queries’ thematic focus, user location, and time when the search was conducted. Our findings indicate that both SEs prioritize left-leaning journalistic media sources, with the degree of ideological slant varying between Democratic- and Republican-focused queries. We also observe limited effects of location- and time-based factors on organic results, but more volatility for results from additional interface elements.

Audit · Business · Internet privacy · Political science · Politics · Public relations · World Wide Web · Accounting · Computer Science · Hate Speech and Cyberbullying Detection · Law · Misinformation and Its Impacts · Social Media and Politics

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