Technologies of Taste

One unique aspect of our new digital media ecology is the massive proliferation of technologies of taste - recommendation engines that use collaborative or content-based filtering (or both). As technology allows us to move from a broadcast to an on-demand media culture, scholars and practitioners need to monitor the way people segregate themselves to media and entertainment content that reinforces their world views, and to look at the social, psychological, and economic effects of this new media ecosystem. However, it is shortsighted to assume that recommendation systems are hard-wired to insulate people from one another. In fact, there is an acute business interest in not allowing that to happen.