Algorithmic Logics
Unlike simple digital roads or utilities, platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and X act not as neutral infrastructures, but as ______ _______ .
Active mediators.
Who was the cultural theorist who argued that media representation is never neutral and constructs meaning through codes and conventions?
Stuart Hall.
Single message distributed rapidly without change.
Viral
This participatory medium is highlighted in your presentation as a tool for social change that bypasses traditional corporate broadcasting.
Podcasting (or podcast workshops)
What is the phenomenon where algorithms continually feed users content that reinforces existing biases, cutting them off from opposing viewpoints and worsening political division ?
Echo chambers (or filter bubbles).
Is the analytical framework used to study how race, gender, class, sexuality, and ability overlap to show how algorithms reproduce systemic inequalities
Intersectionality.
User-created derivatives driving active participation.
Memes.
Community media empowers marginalized voices primarily because it allows communication to operate outside of these platform gatekeepers.
Mainstream algorithmic filters.
The dual dynamic demonstrated when platforms surface high-engagement content like #BLM to billions while suppressing other political movements.
Selective amplification and silencing.
Stuart Hall argues that media representation does not simply reflect pre-existing reality like a mirror, but actively does this to social meaning and power dynamics.
Constructs (or produces) meaning.
The blend between pop culture and politics to give voice to diverse perspectives .
Intertextuality
The core debate in digital discourse analysis questions whether users are passive consumers shaped by algorithms, or this.
Active participants shaping culture.
The economic and social era where digital platforms serve as foundational infrastructure, accelerating rapidly after 2008.
Platform Capitalism (or the Platform Age)
Stuart Hall’s model explaining how media producers embed meaning into content using codes, and how audiences interpret that content in varied ways.
Encoding / Decoding.
How communication constructs power, identity, and social relationships.
Discourse analysis
What designs strategies to foster equity, inclusion, and representation ?
Professional responsibility.
Rather than being passive tools, algorithms act as these entities because they actively set conditions and determine which narratives can circulate.
Discursive actors.
When algorithms rely on historical datasets, they often end up reproducing these existing societal power structures and prejudices.
Systemic / Institutional biases.
What designs strategies to foster equity, inclusion, and representation ?
Professional responsibility
True or False: Algorithms that constantly reinforce your existing biases trap you in this isolated online environment, driving political polarization.
True