Algorithms and The Sociology of Visual Representation

What is the sociological logic of producing news images? My talk will explore and analyze three modes of production of news images: banal, aesthetic and transgressive. I will present these modes of production as the outcomes of what I call cultural algorithms and then discuss how the intervention of digital algorithms impacts these modes of production. As I will show, thinking through the trialectics of production-circulation-interpretation, we can see how digital algorithms are, in fact, cultural. My talk is based on an analysis of images produced in the early 2000s in the context of the Israeli occupation of Palestine, as well as on a discussion of recent AI developments in the field of image production.

Regev Nathansohn holds a PhD in Socio-Cultural Anthropology from the University of Michigan. His fields of research and teaching include visual anthropology, digital urbanism, collaborative media, and engaged research. He co-founded the Visual Sociology Group and the Digital Sociology Group working under the International Sociological Association (ISA). Until recently, Regev was a faculty member in the Department of Communications at Sapir Academic College in southern Israel, where he headed the graduate program. In March 2024, after expressing his anti-war opinion, he was sanctioned by the college management and put on unpaid leave. In July 2024, Dr. Nathansohn immigrated to Spain, where he currently works as an independent scholar.