Algorithmic imaginings and critical digital literacy on #BookTok

Bibliographic Data

ID6443526
AuthorsBronwen Low (0000-0002-2503-8465, McGill University, corresponding author), Christian Ehret (0000-0002-7589-1974, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA), Anita Hagh (0009-0007-0179-3275, McGill University)
Year2023
Volume27
Issue4
Pages2336-2353
Publication date2023-10-27
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueNew Media & Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1461-4448 • E-ISSN: 1461-7315
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/14614448231206466
OpenAlexW4388187263
LanguageEN
Citations received16
References cited38

Despite the growing impact of algorithms on digital culture, and the importance of algorithmic awareness, little literacy research has investigated how algorithmic awareness and speculation shapes cultural production on digital platforms. Developing Bucher’s concept of the “algorithmic imagination” for digital literacy research, we conduct a study of #BookTok, the home of book-related content on TikTok, the most algorithm-driven social media platform to date. Through a multimodal content analysis of 57 videos containing #algorithm and #BookTok, we propose and explore a typology of five categories of “algorithmic imaginings”: critique, defense, explanation, how to work, and exploration of the algorithm. These imaginaries move beyond rational attempts to deconstruct the algorithm and critique its role in platform capitalism toward playful explorations of the human–algorithmic relationship. This constitutes for us another dimension of critical literacy, as producers anthropomorphize technology in a manner that addresses the symbiotic meaning-making of human and machine head-on

Capitalism · Critical literacy · Critical theory · Digital Literacy · Dimension (graph theory · Epistemology · Literacy · Meaning (existential · Political science · Social science · Sociology · Typology · World Wide Web · Anthropology · Computer Science · Digital Games and Media · Digital Media and Philosophy · Innovative Human-Technology Interaction · Mathematics

Tools

Open DOI