Audience Cultural Practices in the Digital Media Environment: the factor of recommendation services

Abstract

The paper represents the analysis of the role of recommendation services as a new element of the modern media environment. The methodology presupposes that audience practices are interdependent by autonomous user activity, on the one hand, and structural parameters of media and other social institutions, on the other. The author argues that recommendation algorithms are an important component of platform management in the media business. Online monitoring of user behavior increases the targeting capabilities of recommendation services, contributes to the individualization and automation of communication exchange in a society of information abundance. The formats for implementing recommendation algorithms turn out to be “embedded” in media consumption, influencing individual’s cultural practices. Author concludes argued that media recommendation services are one of the areas of production of the algorithmic culture, as a result of the application of computational procedures for sorting and hierarchizing various objects of the life world based on behavioral data. Practice of using media recommendation services by the Russian audience forms the empirical part of the study. It was recorded that three quarters of users turned to the content offered by recommendation services. At the same time, the practices of algorithmic recommendations cause both positive and negative assessments. At the same time, the practices of algorithmic recommendations cause both positive and negative assessments. Opinions are divided on the issue of trust in recommendation services: about half of the respondents were characterized by varying degrees of distrust; whereas third of the respondents featured with trust in recommendation services. Findings revealed that trust in recommendation services is statistically significantly correlated with indicators of: age; positive expectations from the introduction of artificial intelligence technologies and their use in everyday life; activity of accessing social networks and online video viewing platforms.