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date: 17 February 2020

Abstract and Keywords

Filter systems are software tools which survey, select, prioritize, and predict information, items and users. Through their content and form, they shape behaviour by collecting individuals and items into similarity-based neighbourhoods. They limit choice and amplify past trends in the name of efficiency and desire. As technologies of organizing, filter systems are thus updating, and perhaps exacerbating, the organizational consequences of media technologies. This raises thorny questions: What are the ramifications of this kind of similarity-based categorization, and of its affectively charged zones? What (class-based, racial, gendered) aspects are factored into its parameters directly or indirectly through proxies?

Keywords: filter systems, filtering, echo chambers, recommendation systems, homophily, neighbourhoods, segregation, digital media, organization

Wendy Hui Kyong Chun

Canada 150 Research Chair in New Media, School of Communication, Simon Fraser University, Canada

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