Rethinking the big data, algorithms and communication: a critique of instrumental neutrality

• Autor(a) principal: Tomaz, Tales
• Data de Publicação: 2018
• Outros Autores: Silva, Guilherme Cavalcante
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Parágrafo
• Texto Completo: https://revistaseletronicas.fiamfaam.br/index.php/recicofi/article/view/711
• topic: Big data; Algorithms; Communication; Big data; Algoritmos; Comunicação

This paper discusses the presence both in big data discourses and in communication studies of the idea of instrumental neutrality in data and algorithms. The text seeks to elucidate the etymological and contextual notion of data and how some of the big data approaches deal with data, algorithms, and information. From there, it presents the difficulties of understanding data and algorithms as mere purpose-neutral instruments. Then the text shows how similar idea was already present in the cybernetic understanding of communication. Finally, we propose a critique of instrumental neutrality presupposed in the ontology of the big data and communication, with emphasis on the question of the erasure of alterity, following the argument of Martin Heidegger"™s phenomenology.