We are a group of graduate students in the Communication & Culture program at York University and Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada. We meet on a bi-weekly basis to discuss issues, concepts, and problematics that emerge from studying and participating in algorithmic cultures.
There are three primary aims of the Working Group. Firstly, we seek to hone members’ abilities in formulating and investigating questions concerning how algorithmic media raise new debates within cultural and communication theory. Secondly, we strive to connect the different levels of graduate students and the different fields of study within Communication & Culture in order to share experience and knowledge. Thirdly, the group has the explicit interest in mobilizing knowledge emerging from group discussions in the form of a conference panels, workshops, publications, or producing other appropriate forms of dissemination.
Our primary concern is to discuss questions such as:
- Do algorithms challenge and/or enhance our understanding of communication theory?
- What happens when the algorithmic sorting, distributing, and blocking of user profiles become sites of socio-economic struggle?
- What balances can be established between technologies of disruption/innovation and technologies of maintenance/regulation?
- Are there useful analytical distinctions between digital, new, social, post- and algorithmic media?
We expect our conversations to also be spurred by legal cases, political controversies, and cultural events where algorithmic media are playing complicated and multifaceted roles. These trajectories serve merely as starting points and we suggest that members add to these conversations the relevant concerns that come from their own research.
A collection of readings that were discussed during meetings.