Archiving, ordering and searching: search engines, algorithms, databases and deep mediatization

TY - JOUR

T1 - Archiving, ordering and searching: search engines, algorithms, databases and deep mediatization

AU - Andersen, Jack

PY - 2018/11/1

Y1 - 2018/11/1

N2 - This article argues that search engines, algorithms, and databases can be considered as a way of understanding deep mediatization. They are embedded in a variety of social and cultural practices, and as such, they change our communicative actions to be shaped by their logic of archiving, ordering, and searching. I argue that, increasingly and in particular ways, search engines, algorithms, and databases shape our everyday communicative actions as they make us think, internalize, and act along the lines of their particular modes of communication action. After having briefly reviewed recent trends in mediatization research, the argument is discussed and unfolded in between the material and social constructivist-phenomenological interpretations of mediatization. In conclusion, it is discussed how deep this form of mediatization can be taken to be.

AB - This article argues that search engines, algorithms, and databases can be considered as a way of understanding deep mediatization. They are embedded in a variety of social and cultural practices, and as such, they change our communicative actions to be shaped by their logic of archiving, ordering, and searching. I argue that, increasingly and in particular ways, search engines, algorithms, and databases shape our everyday communicative actions as they make us think, internalize, and act along the lines of their particular modes of communication action. After having briefly reviewed recent trends in mediatization research, the argument is discussed and unfolded in between the material and social constructivist-phenomenological interpretations of mediatization. In conclusion, it is discussed how deep this form of mediatization can be taken to be.

U2 - 10.1177/0163443718754652

DO - 10.1177/0163443718754652

M3 - Journal article

SN - 0163-4437

VL - Vol 40

SP - 1135

EP - 1150

JO - Media, Culture & Society

JF - Media, Culture & Society

IS - 8

ER -