ABSTRACT
The increasing use of recommender systems reorganizes the dissemination of information and can be understood as an algorithmic regime with the potential to splinter the public sphere (Pariser, 2011; Sunstein, 2009). This creates, so the popular narrative goes, an issue for democratic discourse. Yet, this narrative ignores how the audience is always a constructed one (Ang, 1991). Drawing from Dewey’s concept of “issue publics,” we argue that different algorithmic techniques (Rieder, 2017) for recommendations impact the construction of publics by mediating practices within an algorithmic regime. Analysing how algorithmic techniques are embedded in and mediate between databases, interfaces, and practices sensitizes us to the formation of digital publics. This opens up perspectives for rethinking algorithmic regimes of information distribution for democratic societies.
