Decoding algorithms

In this article, we propose to adapt the communication theory concept of ‘decoding’ as a sensitizing device to probe how people come to know and understand algorithms, what they imagine algorithms to do, and their valorization of and responses to algorithmic work in daily media use. We posit the con...

Ausführliche Beschreibung

Gespeichert in:
Bibliographische Detailangaben
Veröffentlicht in:Media, culture & society Jg. 42; H. 5; S. 745 - 761
Hauptverfasser: Lomborg, Stine, Kapsch, Patrick Heiberg
Format: Journal Article
Sprache:Englisch
Veröffentlicht: London, England SAGE Publications 01.07.2020
Sage Publications Ltd
Schlagworte:
Activities of daily living
Algorithms
Communication
Communication theory
Cultural values
Decoding
Digital media
Everyday life
Justice
Mass media
Semiotics
Sociocultural factors
Transparency
algorithms
communicative agency
tactics
circumventing algorithmic profiling
encoding/decoding
ISSN:0163-4437, 1460-3675
Online-Zugang:Volltext
Tags: Tag hinzufügen
Keine Tags, Fügen Sie den ersten Tag hinzu!
Beschreibung
Zusammenfassung:In this article, we propose to adapt the communication theory concept of ‘decoding’ as a sensitizing device to probe how people come to know and understand algorithms, what they imagine algorithms to do, and their valorization of and responses to algorithmic work in daily media use. We posit the concept of decoding as useful because it highlights a feature that is constitutional in communication: gaps that must be filled by mobilizing our semiotic and socio-cultural knowledge in processes of interpretation before any communication becomes meaningful. If we cannot open the black box itself, we can study the relationships that people experience with algorithms, and by extension how and to what extent these experienced relationships become meaningful and are interwoven with users’ reflections of power, transparency, and justice in digital media. We demonstrate the potential of approaching algorithmic experience as communicative practices of decoding through an exploratory empirical study of how people from different walks of life come to know, feel, evaluate, and do algorithms in daily life. We unpack three prototypical modes of decoding algorithms – along preferred, negotiated, and oppositional modes of engagement with algorithms in daily life.
Bibliographie:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 14
ISSN:0163-4437
1460-3675
DOI:10.1177/0163443719855301