Analysing Algorithms in Public Relations Research: Contexts, Challenges and Innovative Methodologies

One of the defining features of scholarly development in the fields of the humanities, political and social sciences in recent years has arguably been the emergence of what Berry has termed the ‘computational turn’. Originally conceived as unique to areas where the mediation of reality occurs primarily through digital means, the computational ‘turn’ can be increasingly understood as ubiquitous to everyday life given the pervasiveness of technology. As a result computers (or more accurately computational processes embedded in a range of technologies) are responsible for converting “real-world situations into discrete processes to undertake a particular […] task.” (Berry, 2011: 2) (italics in original) These digital processes are crucial for an understanding of the computational turn’s significance in mediating reality as, Berry argues:

The key point is that without the possibility of discrete encoding there is no object [i.e. real-world event] for the computational device to process. However, in cutting up the world in this manner, information about the world necessarily has to be discarded in order to store a representation within the computer. In other words, a computer requires that everything is transformed from the continuous flow of our everyday reality into a grid of numbers that can be stored as a representation of reality which can then be manipulated using algorithms. These subtractive methods of understanding reality (episteme) produce new knowledges and methods for the control of reality (techne). (ibid)

Algorithms, according to Berry, are vital to the rendering and shaping of reality in a digitally-driven society. Both the epistemological and methodological dimensions of these operating within public relations will be the focus of investigation in this paper in order to address what Seiffert and Northhaft refer to as a “blind spot of public relations and strategic communication research” (Seiffert and Northhaft, 2014: 1).

Over the past 12 months, public relations research has increasingly turned its attention to the emerging role played by computation and algorithms in shaping strategic communication. Seiffert and Northaft have identified the persuasive role algorithms play in determining the “procedural rhetoric” of computer games; Holtzhausen has explored the impact algorithmic processing has on notions of the “public sphere” (Holtzhausen, 2014)while Holtzhausen and Zerfass (Holtzhausen and Zerfass, 2015) and Collister have questioned the role and agency of practitioners in an increasingly computational communications environment.

Despite these initial explorations into the field of computational or algorithmic public relations, however one crucial question consistently arising in such research is: how can we adequately identify, analyse and understand the effect of algorithms operating within public relations? Using such a challenge as its focus, this paper will address this computational ‘blind spot’, by firstly defining the current theoretical and practical context of algorithms in public relations before proposing a methodological toolkit to enable public relations scholars to investigate algorithm’s effects on, and outcomes within, public relations settings. Examples will be identified to illustrate working applications of such methodologies and some of the practical limitations of researching algorithms with which scholars will have to contend, such as the legal and ethical implications of algorithm research, will be also discussed.