The Narrative of the News Feed. Multimodal Structure of Algorithmic Discourses

In this talk I want to reflect upon the phenomenon of automatic narrative based on the algorithm. The algorithm in the form of the news-feed represents the basic thread of the post-truth or post-factual era. The term is related to the “fuzzy narrative” (Ryan 2007) which has been used to describe the mechanism of visual-verbal storytelling in the comics. The meaning emerges from the nonlinear structure inherent (to some extent) to comics. The consequence of the fuzzy narrative is related to approximate representation within the news aggregators which is constructed by the algorithms (Krasni 2017/forthcoming). Rooted in the multimodal text units of newsbite (overlapping structurally and functionally with clickbait) these elements of digital discourse are produced automatically. They construct and construe the (form of filter-blurred) reality in the never-ending flow of news feed.

The topic of algorithms and neural networks based on user behavior and preferences (as well as the information extracted from private messages) experiences a new peak in the context of the post-truth and post-factuality debate on the one side, and the ‘filter bubble’ debate on the other. This talk should be a contribution to this discussion from the perspective of the postdisciplinary field of multimodal discourse studies. I will therefore consider some elements of the news-feed design, the narrative structure it creates, and the dynamic multimodal structure it consists of. In other words, the respective problems of the browse and behaviour narrative, the neural network and algorithm ideology, and the basic media infrastructure will be discussed.

The theoretical framework relies partly on the analysis of the global media narratives (Machin and van Leeuwen 2007). Furthermore, the apparatus theory gives the theoretical fundament for the discussion about the infrastructural basis of the material dispositive (Agamben 2009).

Keywords

Approximate narrative, post-truth and post-factual era, news-feed, filter bubble, apparatus, infrastructure, clickbait, newsbite

Literature

Agamben, Giorgio (2009): What is Apparatus? and Other Essays. Stanford University Press, Stanford.

Krasni, Jan (forthcoming): Schuld und Krise. Darstellung der Schuld an der Finanzkrise in den deutschen online-Medien. Diskurs der Bonuszahlungen. Frankfurt/M: Springer VS

Krasni, Jan (forthcoming): “Soziosemiotik und Diskurspolyphonie. Polyphone Positionierungspraktiken in multimodalen online-Textformaten.” In: Kämper, Heidrun; Warnke, Ingo H (Eds.): Diskurs – Interdisziplinär: Diskurs – Semiotisch. DeGruyter, Frankfurt/M.

Machin, David; van Leeuwen, Theo (2007): Global media discourse: a critical introduction. Routledge, London; New York.

Ryan, Marie-Laure (2007): “Toward a Definition of Narrative.” In: David Herman (Hrsg.): The Cambridge Companion to Narrative. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 22–35.