data versus democracy: how big data algorithms shape opinions and alter the course of history

What is data versus democracy?

Content recommendation systems have emerged as the technological solution to this social and informational problem, but they’ve also created a bigger crisis in confirming our biases by showing us only, and exactly, what it predicts we want to see. Data versus Democracy investigates and explores how, in the era of social media, human cognition, algorithmic recommendation systems, and human psychology are all working together to reinforce (and exaggerate) human bias. The dangerous confluence of these factors is driving media narratives, influencing opinions, and possibly changing election results. In this book, algorithmic recommendations, clickbait, familiarity bias, propaganda, and other pivotal concepts are analyzed and then expanded upon via fascinating and timely case studies: the 2016 US presidential election, Ferguson, GamerGate, international political movements, and more events that come to affect every one of us. What are the implications of how we engage with information in the digital age? Data versus Democracy explores this topic and an abundance of related crucial questions. We live in a culture vastly different from any that has come before. In a society where engagement is currency, we are the product. Understanding the value of our attention, how organizations operate based on this concept, and how engagement can be used against our best interests is essential in responsibly equipping ourselves against the perils of disinformation.

What is the lack of literacies in information security?

A current pandemic which has pushed much work online has revealed a lack of literacies in information security, surveillance capitalism, and the unresolved problems of algorithms and control (e.g., Zuboff, Berners-Lee). Yet there is a decades-old tradition of pedagogies that address the complex interactions of the interdisciplinary technoscientific world (Morin, G. Bateson, Rheingold, Dewey, Freire, Cooper) and the need for ethical approaches (Quéau, Markauskaite and Goodyear, Haidt, Gardner). Some of them emerged from the field of cybernetics (Morin, N. Bateson). Recent events show the need for further popularization of digital literacy, interdisciplinary approaches, intellectual and creative rigor, questions of service and liberty, and dialog on what constitutes ‘good’ professional praxis. This paper considers the always unfinished work of pedagogy to ‘rise up’ above names—here, of humanist technoscience—to consider what belonging together means. Through a largely hermeneutic approach, the problem of the technoscientific and its history in cybernetics is remembered in such a way as to remind us of features of our shared creative odyssey towards ‘something of greater significance’ (Dewey) and to show that uncritically downloading the latest app or giving up on the question of taking professional care is for the lotus-eaters.

How Big Data Algorithms Shape Opinions and Alter the Course of History

Teaches the impact of the attention economy and algorithmic information delivery on media production and consumption

About this book

Human attention is in the highest demand it has ever been. The drastic increase in available information has compelled individuals to find a way to sift through the media that is literally at their fingertips.