Algorithms and the construction of cultural taste of the Netflix Recommender System | Fatima Gaw
Channel: iNOVA Media Lab
Date: 2022-05-30

Algorithmic logics and the construction of cultural taste of the Netflix Recommender System by Fatima Gaw (University of Philippines)

This talk investigates algorithms and their construction of cultural taste through a socio-technical analysis of the Netflix Recommender System. I examined the key algorithmic processes in the intersection of its technological infrastructure, cultural processes, and social relations. Drawing from media logic and computational logic, I propose the concept of ‘algorithmic logics’ to define the assumptions, processes, and mechanisms that govern the construction of taste within the Netflix platform. I identified these four logics of taste – datafication, reconfiguration, interpellation, and reproduction – and argue that they reappropriate old apparatuses of social control and generate new capacities in engineering cultural processes.