Dissertation
Civility in the Age of Algorithms
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
01/2020
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/111337
Abstract
This dissertation aims to investigate possible connections between the presence of personalizing algorithms on three popular social networking sites (SNS) and the rhetorical strategies users of the sites employ when engaging with other users on publicly accessible comment threads, with a specific focus on civil discourse grounded in agonistic rhetoric. While personalizing algorithms have long had a presence on the internet, their designs and uses on SNS have come under scrutiny as they tend to create ideological echo chambers by curating personal feeds that restrict access to diverse perspectives and the discourse practices shaping them. To better identify connections that may exist between the presence of personalizing algorithms and user (in)civility, the following work discusses the results from an original IRB approved study examining the organization and content structure of publicly accessible comment threads on the SNS Reddit, Facebook, and Twitter. These results will then be put into concert with the assemblages of each SNS’s personalizing algorithm using Bruno Latour’s Actor-Network Theory.
Metrics
90 File views/ downloads
17 Record Views
Details
- Title
- Civility in the Age of Algorithms
- Creators
- Lacy Culpepper Hope
- Contributors
- Julie Staggers (Advisor)Mike Edwards (Committee Member)Victor Villanueva (Committee Member)Stephanie Vie (Committee Member)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- English, Department of
- Theses and Dissertations
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
- Number of pages
- 147
- Identifiers
- 99900581499801842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Dissertation