Abortion Near Me? The Implications of Semantic Media on Accessing Health Information

Abstract

Despite the important role search engines play in finding health information, little systematic research has looked at the ways in which semantic media complicate this process. An investigation of information seekers from four counties with varying political associations in the state of North Carolina details how 42 people searched for information about abortion. We find that participant ability to find accurate information is primarily driven by their position (i.e., do they support terminating a pregnancy or not). However, our findings also indicate that search engine optimization and advertising make finding accurate abortion information a challenge.