ISBN: 978-981-11-3671-9 DOI: 10.18178/wcse.2017.06.105
Quantitatively Analyzing the Influence of Online News Acquisition on Public Web Searching Behaviors
Abstract— Administrators of public affairs usually ask “What are the problems concerning people mostly?”
When people widely use online search services to find out information of interest and required knowledge,
the search volume index (SVI) can serve as the instrument for nowcasting some phenomenon and problems
that concern public, such as spread of epidemic diseases, economic trends, etc. However, if the search
volume index is significantly influenced by media coverage, its precision of gauging problems will be
questioned. That’s because people who were influenced by media reporting, tend to conduct search due to
curiosity rather than self-awareness. With the effect of media coverage on public searching behavior, the SVI
cannot be used alone to nowcast or forecast things. The present work aims to investigate the influence of
online news acquisition on the SVI. With attenuation of media influence, administrators of public affairs can
gain insight into note-worthy search trends and the problems bearing public awareness, which facilitate
decision making about the corresponding solutions.
Index Terms— Public problems, search volume index, media coverage, regression analysis
Shueh-Cheng Hu
Department of Computer Science & Comm. Engineering Providence University, TAIWAN
I-Ching Chen
Department of Information Management Chung Chou University of Science and Technology, CHINA
Cite: Shueh-Cheng Hu, I-Ching Chen, "Quantitatively Analyzing the Influence of Online News Acquisition on Public Web Searching Behaviors," Proceedings of 2017 the 7th International Workshop on Computer Science and Engineering, pp. 605-610, Beijing, 25-27 June, 2017.