Communicative Feedback Loops in the Digital Society

Trilling, Damian

Communicative Feedback Loops in the Digital Society

dc.contributor.author	Trilling, Damian
dc.date.accessioned	2024-05-30T09:11:49Z
dc.date.available	2024-05-30T09:11:49Z
dc.date.issued	2024-05-27
dc.description.abstract	Contemporary communication is often characterized using metaphors as “echo chambers” or “filter bubbles.” Despite the popularity of these terms, however, growing concerns about vague definitions are complemented by empirical evidence that contests their widespread existence. Nonetheless, today’s media environment offers ample opportunities for human and/or algorithmic selection processes with undesirable outcomes. To reconcile these two observations, I propose taking a feedback-loop perspective. Such a perspective explains how processes can reinforce themselves without producing catastrophic consequences. This can solve the paradox that while extrapolating from typical filter bubble and/or echo chamber models results in full radicalization within a short period, this outcome has not, despite the long-standing presence of the relevant technologies, become omnipresent. After mapping different types of feedback loops in communication research, I review various empirical approaches, discuss how they can improve research on feedback-loop phenomena, and consider how this can enable us to build better theories of communication in the digital society.	en
dc.description.sponsorship	This publication has been funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research of Germany (BMBF) (grant no.: 16DII121, 16DII122, 16DII123, 16DII124, 16DII125, 16DII126, 16DII127, 16DII128 – “Deutsches Internet-Institut”).
dc.identifier.citation	Trilling, D. (2024). Communicative Feedback Loops in the Digital Society. Weizenbaum Journal of the Digital Society, 4(2). https://doi.org/10.34669/wi.wjds/4.2.4
dc.identifier.doi	https://doi.org/10.34669/wi.wjds/4.2.4
dc.identifier.issn	2748-5625
dc.identifier.uri	https://www.weizenbaum-library.de/handle/id/685
dc.language.iso	eng
dc.publisher	Weizenbaum Institute
dc.rights	open access
dc.rights.uri	https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.subject	feedback loop
dc.subject	echo chamber
dc.subject	filter bubble
dc.subject	recommender systems
dc.subject	algorithm
dc.title	Communicative Feedback Loops in the Digital Society
dc.type	Article
dc.type.status	publishedVersion
dcmi.type	Text
dcterms.bibliographicCitation.journaltitle	Weizenbaum Journal of the Digital Society