Władza algorytmów mediów – między reifikacją a rynkiem
The Power of Media Algorithms – between Reification and the Market

Summary/Abstract: The aim of the article is to identify the power of algorithms interpreted as mythologized and reified culture machines which establish relations in the new media cyberspace of the algorithm culture. From the humanistic point of view, algorithms are understood as a relation between a code, project assumptions, the institutional and cultural context, and a user. In digital media ecosystems, we consider the presence of algorithms to be indispensable, and we attribute them with the redemptive potential of compensating for human limitations – they are supposed to restrict the bias of media, to perform browsing tasks, to recognise patterns, and to provide data compression and automatic correction. All of this is done better, faster, and more accurately than if performed by people. The analysis of the significance of media algorithms, and of the digital media technologies in general, scarcely goes beyond the simple schemes according to which they come across as ultramodern, neutral (although not easy to be recognised) elements of IT infrastructure and management in the eco-systems of new media. Usually, the role of algorithms in media is perceived in the way the management of Google, Facebook, Twitter, and other organisations would like to perceive it. Such organisations call themselves technological companies (not media organisations) without any influence on social attitudes and hence, without any responsibility for them. When viewed in the context of the discussion about responsibility of new media (technological) organisations in the post-truth environment, the interpretation of algorithmic solutions in the category of power becomes not only legitimized but also indispensable.

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