Purpose

The purpose of the current study is to theorize and apply a socio-technological model – the powerful influence of social determinants in conditioning the effects of information attention on social outcomes. Fundamentally, this study is motivated by the idea that the social determinants of information flow can be used as a predictive tool to inform public socio-policy decisions.

Design/methodology/approach

This study draws upon digital disparity literature and uses publicly available Google search queries in exploring online information attention and its relationships to the HIV/AIDS diffusion in US cities. This study’s secondary data collected from extant sources is used to draw attention to a holistic urban ecology under which online search attention represents the variation of information access at the aggregate level.

Findings

The main finding shows that online information attention, as indicated by search trend, is far from being a simple predictor, but operates in complex interactions with existing social environments. A bivariate correlation between AIDS information search and AIDS diffusion rate was found to be significant. However, predictive multivariate models displayed robust effects of social contextual variables, such as income level and racial composition of cities, in moderating the effect of online search information flow.

Practical implications

The importance of these insights is discussed for reducing socio-health disparities at the macro-social level, and policymakers and health administrators are recommended to incubate supportive online infrastructure as an effective preventive measure at the time of a crisis.

Originality/value

The unique contribution of this study is the premise that looks at the aggregate-ecological contour of cities within which the potential benefits of information occur, instead of examining the isolated function of mediated information per se. In this vein, online information search, in lieu of the exposure to mass media message that is often measured via self-reported items, is a particularly unique and fruitful area of future inquiry that this study promotes.

中文翻译：

---

美国城市中搜索信息鸿沟的社会技术模型

目的

本研究的目的是理论化并应用一种社会技术模型-社会决定因素在调节信息关注对社会成果的影响方面的强大影响。从根本上说，本研究的动机是信息流动的社会决定因素可以用作向公众社会政策决策提供信息的预测工具。

设计/方法/方法

这项研究借鉴了数字差异文献，并使用可公开获得的Google搜索查询来探索在线信息的关注及其与美国城市中HIV / AIDS传播的关系。本研究从现有来源收集的次要数据用于引起人们对整体城市生态的关注，在这种生态环境下，在线搜索的关注代表了总体水平上信息访问的变化。

发现

主要发现表明，如搜索趋势所示，在线信息注意力远非简单的预测指标，而是与现有社交环境进行复杂的交互作用。发现艾滋病信息搜索与艾滋病扩散率之间存在二元相关性，这一关系很显着。但是，预测性多元模型在减轻在线搜索信息流的影响方面显示出社会上下文变量（如收入水平和城市的种族组成）的强大作用。

实际影响

讨论了这些见解对减少宏观社会水平上的社会卫生差距的重要性，建议政策制定者和卫生管理人员在发生危机时孵化支持性的在线基础设施，作为有效的预防措施。

创意/价值

这项研究的独特贡献是，前提是着眼于城市的整体生态学轮廓，在其中发生信息的潜在利益，而不是研究中介信息本身的孤立功能。因此，在线信息搜索代替了经常通过自我报告的项目来衡量的大众媒体信息的暴露，是这项研究促进的特别独特且富有成果的未来研究领域。