Algorithmic Worldmaking: The Rhetorical Craft of Networked Order (Rhetoric and Digitality) - Hardcover

Johnson, Jeremy David

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0817322213 ISBN 13: 9780817322212

Publisher: University Alabama Press, 2025

Synopsis

Illuminates how algorithms, intertwined with human biases, damage political discourse and civic engagement.

Algorithmic Worldmaking is an urgent exploration of the dynamic relationship between algorithms that encode their human creators’ assumptions and the humans whose choices are shaped by these algorithms in search engines, social media, and other digital spaces. Transcending discussions of one or the other, Jeremy David Johnson traces the corrupting political and social influences that arise from their mutual interaction.

Johnson uses the concept of kosmos in its sense of a dynamic order to frame the interplay between algorithms, humans, and their environments. He first shows how algorithms, far from being objective or unbiased, perpetuate human errors. Johnson then suggests a framework of four parts―navigation, exploration, maintenance, and monetization―to map the variety of political consequences to a society influenced by these four factors.

Citing controversies at major platforms such as Google, YouTube, and Facebook, Johnson demonstrates how algorithms limit and shape human thought. He makes several persuasive arguments. First, algorithms and humans share agency but humans have exceptional responsibility. Second, the algorithmic kosmos mirrors and shapes social oppression. Third, algorithms incentivize capitalist exploitation. Last, these influences damage democratic deliberation.

This landmark study is essential for scholars and students of political science, media studies, and those interested in the perilous implications of algorithmic systems on civic and political life.

About this title

About the Author

Jeremy David Johnson is assistant professor of communication at the University of the Pacific. He is coeditor of Speech and Debate as Civic Education.

Edition details

• Publisher: University Alabama Press
• Publication date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0817322213
• ISBN 13: 9780817322212
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 246