Google Year in Search
When New Year’s rolls around, people often vow to move on from everything that held them back over the past year, holding out hope for the year to come. Yet we can’t help but spend our time watching over our memories from the year and reminiscing. Which is exactly why Google’s “Year in Search” videos have begun averaging around 200 million views. However, what many people who watch these videos may not recognize is that Google’s “Year in Search” series actually acts as a form of propaganda, as it is designed to tap into people’s hopes, dreams, and fears. While not entirely noticeable upon first viewing, these videos are discreetly focusing on inspiring business, politics, and activism as those are the three topics commonly included in these videos.
For the purpose of this assignment, I will be choosing to focus on “Year in Search 2020”, as I feel like this year in particular showcases more clear examples of propaganda.
First, as with any piece of media, we must examine it against the five critical questions of media literacy. This video comes from Google and has stated that its purpose is to recap what the top searches of 2020 were, among its users. The three minute video maintains the attention of the viewer by using a range of digital mediums; such as quick snippets of videos, songs, photographs, and text to keep the viewers eyes’ moving. This constant flood of visuals is also mixed with an emotional narration that is explaining each search. Google is trying to convey the point of view of its everyday user: showing what users are searching for as if it were us typing into the search bar, showing lifestyles of other people like us through the short videos scattered throughout, and it is inline with more progressive values.
Despite the more progressive and uplifting tone of the video, a lot is omitted and there is still room for people to interpret its message differently. These Google videos definitely hold a strong bias towards certain sets of beliefs and therefore omit anything that would counter them. Also, the difference in interpretation primarily comes in the form of the emotions of the viewer at the end of the video. Some people may come out of this video feeling more optimistic and hopeful for the future, while others may find this reminder of all the struggles of the past year as a negative sign for the future, and therefore don’t feel much hope for things to get better.
Now to further dive into how these videos act as propaganda, it is important to consider an additional five questions about the content and how it could potentially sway the emotions of the viewers.
As I mentioned earlier, the surface level explanation is that this content is showcasing what the most popular searches were throughout the entire year; however, it is more than that. It is also expressing how people have always turned to Google in times of uncertainty, finding Google a reliable source that is able to quell some of their anxieties.
Similarly to every other inclusion within the “Year in Search” series, The 2020 edition uses powerful symbols and rhetorical strategies to attract audience attention and activate emotional response. A common motif within these videos is the consistent image of the Google search bar. Every topic is posed as a question within the search bar, and is supposed to represent us, as google users, searching for these questions. It is essentially the company putting itself in “our shoes”. There is no doubt that these videos invoke intense emotional responses from people. Ask anyone who has watched one, and they will most likely admit to crying. I myself cry every time I watch, no matter how many times I have seen it. They are able to invoke these emotions by including images and videos of everyday people, just like us, who we are able to relate to during moments of intensely emotional events of the year. For example, during the 2020 video, we were shown clips from the BLM movement, the Australian and Californian wildfires, COVID-19, as well as the deaths of Kobe Bryant, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, and Chadwick Boseman. Watching these clips may remind us of how we had felt in each of those moments.
That is exactly what the video is meant to do, it is supposed to be emotional and heartfelt, focusing on themes of hope and progression. It attempts to promote a more personal and understanding relationship between this multi-million dollar company and the viewer, by showing that they understand how we feel. It promotes a more trusting view of the company from the viewer. In turn, I believe it will sway audiences to associate hope and progressiveness with Google as a company, and will therefore think more highly of the brand and will be more likely to choose them over any other search engine.
These videos are mainly encountered on social media, as they are typically released on Google’s social media platforms during the month of December, and have become a staple in many peoples’ year end festivities. People will share the video on their Instagram stories, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, etc. All of which increase the exposure of the video and ultimately Google.
At the end of the day, people are bound to feel very emotional when watching these videos. While researching for public opinion of the series on different social media platforms, I came across many posts of people explaining how these types of videos make them sob every time, but they go back each year to watch the new release and rewatch the old ones.
I think these videos catch us during a time where we are less guarded and we tend to feel comforted and seen through these videos, as it encompasses the viewers emotions that they may have felt throughout the year. Google is acknowledging and validating their emotions. It’s basically Google saying “we understand how you felt, and we will always be here for you whenever you feel like that in the future”. Due to the vulnerability that we may feel while watching the Google “Year in Search” videos, it’s more difficult for people to accept or reject the messages within them. As @baldgayicon on Twitter says, “I am not immune to Google propaganda… the Year in Review commercials get my ass every time”.
