Algorithm by Tarleton Gillespie

Gillespie, Tarleton. "Algorithm [draft][# digitalkeyword]." Culture Digitally (2014).  

Gillespie brings our attention to how the meaning of words change over time and how different communities use the same term in different ways. This creates words like Algorithm that has become a broad word used by many communities with overlapping and sometimes differing meanings.  Gillespie sites MacCormick stating an ‘algorithm, on a primary level, is ‘a logical series of steps for organizing and acting on a body of data to quickly achieve a desired outcome.’ Even with the basic definition, the use of word differs depending on whether you are part of the technical communities, the social sciences or the broader public (Gillespie). She goes on to remind us that there is not one triumphant use, we just need to be aware that they are different.  

Gillespie cites Goffey who states an ‘“Algorithm” may in fact serve as an abbreviation for the sociotechnical assemblage that includes algorithm, model, target goal, data, training data, application, hardware — and connect it all to a broader social endeavour’. This implies that there are human interventions at every point and they are not standalone inventions that act by themselves. They are steered and act according to what people decide.  

 When it comes to the broader public, the terms ‘algorithm’ is a complex and misunderstood mystified robot. On the once hand the broad stroke definition creates distance but and on the other hand it lumps things to. Distance is created because the specifics of the term is not known to the layman so companies can blame the algorithm for mistakes, thus shifting the blame from the humans who make the decisions to the ‘algorithm’. If something is not preforming as expected or produces racist results it can be explained always using the ‘algorithm’. However, companies often use algorithms to make decisions and alliances in an algorithmic way. ‘“by Facebook’s algorithm” they often mean Facebook and the choices it makes, some of which are made in code.’ This way of thinking re-inserts accountability and lands companies and the people who work there at the forefront of the conversation.  

Decision and results from algorithms are regarded higher that those made by humans giving it ‘cultural authority’.  Algorithmic systems tend to take precedence but what make algorithmic systems that produce information using a ‘complex assemblage of people, machines, and procedures’ better than non- algorithmic systems that also use the same three things. It's not about contrasting the two but understanding that algorithms and human intervention work in unison to automate human interventions. Just a modern version of the ‘tension between ad hoc human sociality and procedural systemization’  

References 

Algorithm [draft] [#digitalkeywords], Tarleton Gillespie, 2014