Today algorithms are deemed to have a power similar to that of journalism to produce public spheres and constructions of reality. The debate relating to this proposition allow us to observe how questions, which have formed the core of journalism research, are now being reformulated. Such questions concern the definition of what underpins information in society and in the news, the definition of relevance, the appropriateness of selection processes, the idea of objectivity and how items offered as information relate to ‘reality’. The epistemological challenge of the reality of the mass media (to Communication Studies) has, therefore, waxed virulent again, given the new indexes of the changed conditions for communication in society. We use the possibilities of constructivism when observing the debate about the significance of algorithms for producing a public sphere/reality and propose a view of professional journalism and algorithmically generated information not as two separate sites for constructing reality but as interwoven with and relating to each other.
Vowe G. (2017) Theoretische Ansätze als kommunikative Konstruktionen: Optionen und Konsequenzen einer konstruktivistischen Erklärung der Wissenschaftsentwicklung. M&K Medien & Kommunikationswissenschaft 65(2): 236–251. https://cepa.info/7093
Can theoretical approaches be seen as communicative constructions? Using the example of the ‘Media Reality’ approach in communication studies, we show which benefits of approaching the development of theoretical approaches on the basis of a constructivist understanding of science. Firstly, the explanatory possibilities of social constructivism on macro-, mesoand micro-level of interaction are explained.