ABSTRACT
In her book, The Silent Revolution, Mercedes Bunz describes a relentless transformation that unfolds silently. Algorithms and data merge in automatized processes of intellectual labour: algorithms produce journalistic articles, stock reports, and sports news. This slippery slope into an algorithmic society unfolds relatively unnoticed and without the occasional hypes that usually mark milestones of technological progress. However, it has effects on the heart of our society in that it reshapes our understanding of media industries and public discourses. With this, it questions our identity as zoon politikon. What once was opinion forming has now been taken over by decision-making machines that have become an inherent part of our social organization. Bunz shows the need to consciously interact and understand technology.
