Karen M. Estlund’s dissertation A Media Archaeology of Online Communication Practices through Search Engine and Social Media Optimization develops a sophisticated critique of the invisible infrastructures governing communication within contemporary digital environments. Rejecting technologically neutral interpretations of online information systems, the study reconceptualises Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Social Media Optimization (SMO) not as merely technical marketing practices, but as historically situated sociotechnical mechanisms through which visibility, legitimacy and informational authority are algorithmically negotiated. The dissertation argues that access to information on the contemporary web is increasingly mediated through dominant gatekeeping platforms such as Google, Facebook, Bing and Twitter, whose proprietary algorithms regulate discoverability while simultaneously shaping the conditions under which communication becomes socially consequential. Through a rigorous media archaeological methodology inspired by Foucault, cybernetics and information theory, Estlund traces the evolution of optimisation practices from early information retrieval systems and Shannon’s mathematical communication model to contemporary semantic web architectures and platform capitalism. Particularly illuminating is the demonstration that optimisation strategies are embedded materially within HTML structures, metadata systems, semantic markup, hyperlink architectures and algorithmically preferred formatting conventions. The empirical analyses of archived Los Angeles Times webpages and U.S. Senate campaign websites reveal how journalistic and political institutions progressively adapted their textual organisation, metadata practices and structural coding to comply with evolving algorithmic expectations. Equally significant is the dissertation’s interrogation of so-called “black hat” optimisation practices, exposing how distinctions between legitimate and illegitimate visibility are frequently determined by corporate platform interests rather than universal ethical principles. By integrating communication theory, gatekeeping studies, critical code analysis and politics of information, the dissertation demonstrates that digital visibility is neither neutral nor democratic, but produced through contested systems of infrastructural control, institutional power and optimisation labour. Ultimately, Estlund establishes SEO and SMO as foundational mechanisms of contemporary algorithmic culture, revealing that the struggle for informational access in digital societies increasingly depends upon the capacity to understand, negotiate and strategically intervene within the invisible architectures of computational gatekeeping.
URBANISM MEETS ART