Rethinking platform studies: The challenges of researching algorithms and the case for renewing breaching experiments | Media@LSE

As the way the media operates becomes more and more complicated and harder to study, LSE PhD researcher Hossein Derakhshan explains why research techniques such as breaching experiments can be useful for studying the effect of platforms and algorithms on people’s everyday lives. Studying media was much easier before platforms and their artificial intelligence-powered algorithms dominated our everyday lives. The mass media era meant millions of people woke up with the same radio shows, read the same newspapers on the tube, watched the same sitcoms, evening news and late-night talk shows. Magazines, books, and music records enjoyed more variety, but each were still consumed by massive numbers of people at any given time, and it was easy to ask people what they made of a television or radio network, a newspaper or music label, or of a specific show or article or record. Platforms are changing all this. There are now as many Twitter timelines, Instagram feeds, or YouTube playlists as inter

Media@LSE Promoting critical research into the vital role of media and communications in contemporary society About Latest Submissions Follow us Search Hossein Derakhshan August 8th, 2023 Rethinking platform studies: The challenges of researching algorithms and the case for renewing breaching experiments 0 comments | 37 shares Estimated reading time: 5 minutes Media@LSE Promoting critical research into the vital role of media and communications in contemporary society About Latest Submissions Follow us Search Hossein Derakhshan August 8th, 2023 Rethinking platform studies: The challenges of re

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