Sheehan, KimEstlund, Karen2021-09-132021-09-132021-09-13https://hdl.handle.net/1794/26661The control of information is embedded in the cultural politics and institutions that regulate access to information. In its most basic form, communication is a practice of enabling the exchange of information. Websites have become one of the primary ways that people access information; however, most of the access is mediated through search engines and social media platforms. Communication research has explored the role of these platforms as gatekeeper and critical studies have attended to the ideologies of search algorithms. From the advertising and public relations industries, advice has emerged to communicators on how to make their content accessible through these gatekeepers using optimization strategies. Critical communication studies have not examined the relationship between these optimization strategies that are used on actual webpages and access to information. This dissertation seeks to fill that gap by asking how optimization techniques are structured in online communications to increase access to information. How do the techno-infrastructure of HTML and embedded assumptions shape communication online? Where are points of resistance and opportunities for influence? How does this differ from historic methods of preparing communications to be discovered and retrieved? This dissertation explores the history of search engine and social media optimization through a media archaeological approach to uncover the invisible infrastructures, habits, and assumptions that surround and shape communication online. By utilizing a media archaeological analysis, I will be able to situate the multi-layered practices in the form of optimization strategies. Critical histories are meant to be emancipatory. This dissertation is important for communication studies to develop an understanding of how we enable and influence discussions in our current digital cultural moment and to provide strategies for how communications are accessed.en-USAll Rights Reserved.media archaeologyonline newspolitical candidate webpagessearch engine optimizationsocial media optimizationElectronic Thesis or Dissertation