If...Then

The book IF … THEN offers an account of power and politics in the algorithmic media landscape that takes into consideration the multiple realities of algorithms and how they relate and coexist with one another. The argument presented contends that algorithms are not just powerful and political, but they also contribute to producing particular forms of acting and knowing in the world. By processing, classifying, sorting, and ranking data, algorithms become political in shaping how the world appears to us.

The book examines various aspects of algorithmic systems, including Facebook's news feed, social media users' everyday interactions with these systems, and the work practices of news professionals. It makes a case for moving beyond the narrow, technical view of algorithms as simply step-by-step procedures for solving problems in a finite number of steps.

Drawing on a process-relational theoretical framework and empirical data from field observations and fifty-five interviews, the author demonstrates that algorithms exist in many ways beyond code. The analysis explores the world-making capabilities of algorithms and questions how these systems shape our encounters and orientations, as well as how they are imbued with a diffused personhood and relational agency.

IF … THEN asserts that algorithmic power and politics are not about algorithms determining how the social world is fabricated or what they do per se. Instead, the focus is on how and when various aspects of algorithms and the algorithmic become available to specific actors, under which circumstances, and who or what is included in defining how algorithms are understood.

作者简介

TainaBucherisAssociateProfessorofCommunicationandITattheUniversityofCopenhagen.Herresearchfocusesonthepowerandpoliticsofalgorithmsineverydaylifeattheintersectionofmediastudies,sociologyandscience,andtechnologystudies.