ABSTRACT
Authority becomes a frame to consider the abilities of certain individuals or structure to gain or maintain influence over a group of people within digital spaces. While authority is a characteristic often discussed in relation to how the internet affects relationships and structures within contemporary society, the way authority is defined in scholarly works is often not clearly contextualized. This is because what constitutes authority in new media or digital culture can be varied and context specific. Authority as power pays attention to how control is established in certain social settings, especially related to the social and cultural rules or structures put in place to give a certain group of individual’s power over another. Framing authority as power can be useful for drawing attention to how authority is negotiated in the ways established leaders online enact strategies to establish their leadership and control. Seeing authority as algorithmic presents a view of authority identified as emerging from computer-based systems.
