Description:
In a world increasingly shaped by invisible code, Algorithmic Worldmaking offers a powerful lens to understand how algorithms construct--and constrain--our civic and political lives. Jeremy David Johnson explores the deep entanglement between human biases and algorithmic systems, revealing how platforms like Google, Facebook, and YouTube encode assumptions that distort public discourse and democratic engagement. Drawing on ancient Greek notions of kosmos--a dynamic, flowing order--Johnson introduces a four-part framework: navigation, exploration, maintenance, and monetization, to map how algorithms shape our digital environments. From search engine manipulation to racialized ad targeting and content moderation, this book exposes the rhetorical power of algorithms and their role in reinforcing social oppression and capitalist exploitation. Essential reading for scholars of media, rhetoric, and political science, Algorithmic Worldmaking is a bold call to rethink the ethics and agency of our algorithmic futures.
Review Quotes:
"An ambitious and imaginative research project that explores the impact of algorithms on cultural life. It is well done and compellingly written." --E. Johanna Hartelius, author of The Gifting Logos: Expertise in the Digital Commons