Three Narratives about Algorithms

The third speaker in this AoIR 2018 session is Martina Mahnke, who is approaching algorithms from a human rather than technical perspective. Indeed, the term algorithm is often used to avoid explaining exactly how automated systems function, and what logics them embed; the study of algorithms from the user’s or programmer’s view has a considerably shorter history to date.

From this perspective, the, algorithms are communicative constructs; the narratives of algorithms influence directly how people engage with them. But this also implies that there is the narrative of algorithms that is created by the programmers, as well as a potential counter-narrative through which users repurpose the algorithm to their own ends.

Martina conducted ten interviews with algorithm programmers and ten interviews with users in order to explore these narratives further; several narratives emerged from this. Programmers largely employed a narrative of algorithms as ‘magic’, while users were more critical; additionally, an imperative narrative that highlighted the importance of algorithms for addressing information overload or simplifying the use of complex information technologies also emerged.

In many ways, then, algorithms as communicative constructs have taken on a life of their own, independent of the actual technologies; such narratives are now deeply embedded in ongoing public discourses and evoke complex social, cultural, and political ambiguities and emotional reactions. In this sense, it is becoming increasingly important to investigate how algorithms make people feel about the world.