Neither Black Nor Box: Ways of Knowing Algorithms

Bucher uses the concept of the black box as a heuristic device to discuss the nature of algorithms in contemporary media platforms, and how we, as scholars and students interested in this nature, might attend to and study algorithms, despite, or even because of, their seemingly secret nature. The argument is made that despite the usefulness in pointing out some of the epistemological challenges relating to algorithms, the figure of the black box constitutes somewhat of a distraction from other, perhaps more pressing, questions and issues. Moving beyond the notion that algorithms are black boxes, the chapter synthesizes and extends existing approaches and makes a case for using well-known methods to new domains, not only generating knowledge about emerging issues and practices, but contributing to (re)inventing methods.

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