Positioning the Archaeological Monument Arkaim at the Top of Search Engine Results
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47475/2070-0695-2025-58-4-58-65Keywords:
media, search engines, Yandex, Google, Arkaim, public archeologyAbstract
This study focuses on the media representation of the Arkaim archaeological site, specifically on the resources that appear first in search results for a topical query on Yandex and Google, two popular Russian search engines. The study focused on the Arkaim archaeological site (Chelyabinsk Oblast), which is of interest due to its controversial positioning: it is viewed as an object of scientific interest, a tourist destination, and a space with mystical potential. The relevance of this study stems from the growing volume of information available online and changing media consumption practices: users increasingly rely on search engines for initial research, limiting themselves to examining the first results. The aim of the study is to examine the representation of the Arkaim archaeological site on resources that attract audiences who employ a "superficial search" strategy, focusing on the first search results. To this end, the top five resources in Yandex and Google search results for the query "Arkaim" were examined using formal-content and discourse analysis. The empirical base included institutional media, encyclopedic resources, blog platforms and media outlets, and tourist websites. The analysis of the selected resources included five main criteria: thematic focus, scientific credibility, completeness of the site description, resource interface, and content relevance. Additionally, the responses of the Alice AI and Deepseek neural networks to a similar thematic query were examined. The conducted work led to the following conclusions: the representation of Arkaim is fragmented and heterogeneous; there is an imbalance between scientific and tourist discourse, the esoteric context is mentioned in passing; the image of the archaeological site is commercialized; and the resources under consideration practically do not use multimedia formats.
Acknowledgments: The article was prepared within the framework of the Russian Science Foundation grant № 23-18-20098 (regional competition of the Chelyabinsk region), project: «Materialized identity: constructing memory in a socio-economic perspective (using the example of the archaeological site Arkaim)».References
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