Democratic Algorithms is out!

Poechhacker, N. (2024) Democratic Algorithms: Ethnography of a Public Recommender System. Meson Press: Lüneburg, Germany

I am happy to announce here that my book “Democratic Algorithms” got published. In the book, I discuss the making of an recommender algorithm in public broadcasting and ask: Can an algorithm be democratic? And how can we understand algorithms not only as technical, but also as social and political phenomena? Based on ethnographic research, I document how the developers tried to make a recommender system that is both appealing to users, but also adheres to the perceived constitutional requirements for such an algorithm, namely diversity in the provided information. In the book I describe, how the algorithm got enacted in three different ways, technical, organizational, and political, and how the coordination of these enactments can tells us more about the study of algorithms as socio-technical systems, rather than technical artifacts.

If you want to get a copy or download the open access version, you can do so here.