Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism
Illustrated Edition, Kindle Edition
Description
Reviews"Noble makes a strong case that present technologies and search engines are not just imperfect, but they enact actual harm to people and communities."--Popmatters.comxa0"[P]resents convincing evidence of the need for closer scrutiny and regulation of search engine[s]....A thought-provoking, well-researched work...."--Library Journalxa0"Noble argues...that the web is ...a machine of oppression...[Her] central insight - that nothing about internet search and retrieval is political neutral - is made...through the accumulation of alarming and disturbing examples.xa0 [She] makes a compelling case that pervasive racism online inflames racist violence IRL."--Los Angeles Review of Booksxa0"Noble demolishes the popular assumption that Google is a values-free tool with no agenda...She astutely questions the wisdom of turning so much of our data and intellectual capital over to a corporate monopoly....Noble's study should prompt some soul-searching about our reliance on commercial search engines and about digital social equity."--STARRED Booklistxa0"A distressing account of algorithms run amok."--Kirkus Reviewsxa0"Safiya Noble has produced an outstanding book that raises clear alarms about the ways Google quietly shapes our lives, minds, and attitudes. Noble writes with urgency and clarity. This book is essential for anyone hoping to understand our current information ecosystem."--Siva Vaidhyanathan, Author of The Googlization of Everything -- and Why We Should Worryxa0"Safiya Noble's compelling and accessible book is an impressive survey of the impact of search and other algorithms on our understandings of racial and gender identity. Her study raises crucial questions regarding the power and control of algorithms, and is essential reading for understanding the way media works in the contemporary moment."--Sarah Banet-Weiser, Author of Authentic™: The Politics of Ambivalence in a Brand Culturexa0"All search results are not created equal.xa0 Through deft analyses of software, society, and superiority, Noble exposes both the motivations and mathematics that make a 'technologically redlined' internet.xa0 Read this book to understand how supposedly race neutral zeros and ones simply don't add up."--Matthew W. Hughey, Author of White Bound: Nationalists, Antiracists, and the Shared Meanings of Race Safiya Umoja Noble is an associate professor at UCLA, and is a visiting faculty member to the University of Southern California's Annenberg School of Communication. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Features & Highlights
- As seen in
- Wired and
- Time
- A revealing look at how negative biases against women of color are embedded in search engine results and algorithms.
- In
- Algorithms of Oppression
- , Safiya Umoja Noble challenges the idea that search engines like Google offer an equal playing field for all forms of ideas, identities, and activities. Data discrimination is a real social problem; Noble argues that the combination of private interests in promoting certain sites, along with the monopoly status of a relatively small number of Internet search engines, leads to a biased set of search algorithms that privilege whiteness and discriminate against people of color, specifically women of color. Through an analysis of textual and media searches as well as extensive research on paid online advertising, Noble exposes a culture of racism and sexism in the way discoverability is created online. As search engines and their related companies grow in importance--operating as a source for email, a major vehicle for primary and secondary school learning, and beyond--understanding and reversing these disquieting trends and discriminatory practices is of utmost importance.
- An original, surprising and, at times, disturbing account of bias on the internet,
- Algorithms of Oppression
- contributes to our understanding of how racism is created, maintained, and disseminated in the 21st century.
- Safiya Noble discusses search engine bias in an interview with USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism
