New Books Network Ted Striphas, "Algorithmic Culture Before the Internet" (Columbia UP, 2023)
Feb 18, 2026
Ted Striphas, media studies scholar and author of Algorithmic Culture Before the Internet, explores how pre-digital systems mirrored algorithmic processes. He traces computation’s cultural history, examines how media shape attention and decision-making, and argues language and culture are central to critiquing algorithms. Short reflections touch on AI’s conversational limits, turnstiles as persuasion, and possibilities for resisting algorithmic control.
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Culture And Computation Long Entangled
- Culture became entangled with computation long before Silicon Valley popularized algorithms.
- Ted Striphas argues that understanding that history explains why algorithms now sort and prioritize cultural goods.
Machines Replace Human Cultural Dialogue
- Shifts from human intermediaries to machine mediators change cultural dialogue and labor.
- Striphas highlights loss of conversational and agonistic cultural exchange when machines replace people.
Amazon's 2009 Delisting Mistake
- In April 2009 Amazon accidentally delisted 55,000 LGBTQ titles, an early algorithmic mishap.
- Striphas uses this event to show algorithms can exclude cultural groups without human oversight.
