Chapter 1 - The avalanche of choice and algorithms

In today’s world of information-overload, it is no longer possible to expect individual professional figures to act as the (quantitatively) primary agenda setters and gatekeepers: the (quantitatively) primary journalistic role was taken over by automated processes of algorithmic mediation. This reliance on algorithmic filtering of information over human intervention makes it necessary to analyse the fundamental building blocks of the process of creation of algorithmic systems. This chapter presents algorithmic gatekeeping as a necessary result of the information output challenges of the modern era, and presents a short and broad overview of algorithmic systems — from the basic functioning of computer-based automated selection systems to the synecdochical usage of the term “algorithm.”