What Motivates Internet Users to Search for Asperger Syndrome and Autism on Google?

Raúl Tárraga-Mínguez, Irene Gómez-Marí and Pilar Sanz-Cervera
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Raúl Tárraga-Mínguez: Department of Education and School Management, Faculty of Teacher Training, University of Valencia, 46022 Valencia, Spain
Irene Gómez-Marí: Department of Education and School Management, Faculty of Teacher Training, University of Valencia, 46022 Valencia, Spain
Pilar Sanz-Cervera: Department of Education and School Management, Faculty of Teacher Training, University of Valencia, 46022 Valencia, Spain

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 24, 1-13

Abstract: Social campaigns are carried out to promote autism spectrum disorder (ASD) awareness, normalization, and visibility. The internet helps to shape perceptions of Asperger syndrome and autism. In fact, these campaigns often coincide with the increase in searches for both diagnoses on Google. We have two study objectives: to use Google Trends to identify the annual time points from 2015 to 2019 with the highest Google search traffic in Spain for the terms “autism” and “Asperger”, and to identify news and trending topics related to ASD that took place during the weeks with the highest number of Google searches for these terms. Google Trend, MyNews and Trendinalia were used to analyze the volume of searches and trending topics related to ASD. As a result, social marketing campaigns, social networks and the publication of news items act as powerful voices that can provide a realistic or sensationalist picture of the disorder. For this reason, we concluded that campaigns play an important role in the normalization of ASD, and that it is important for organizations concerned with the visibility and social inclusion of people with ASD to check the way ASD is portrayed through the internet, media, and social networks.

Keywords: Asperger; autism; Google trends; internet users’ behavior; MyNews; social campaigns; Trendinalia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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