Teknik Belirlenimci Medya Kültürü Bağlamında Dijital Gerçeklik-Veri-Anlam İlişkisi Üzerine Epistemik Bir Tartışma

Abstract

The concept of data, especially digital data, has created a vital transformation in the context of media culture. The critical analysis of the transformation in digital media culture undoubtedly requires that the view of technological determinism be discussed. In this context, the first striking point is that digital data is far from reflecting the cumulative nature of social reality and human experience, since collective existence is not a phenomenon to be simply absorbed via data. Today's digital culture narrative is a social / cultural formation dominated by the quantitative and does not provide a concrete clue about who we really are. The main dilemma in statistical evaluations is that they by no means have such adequate depth to surround the qualitative accumulation law. All these judgments presume an irreducible difference between data and meaning. Many predictions, associated with the relationship among information technologies/ information-meaning/ experience, from the concept of "quantified self" critiqued by Byung-Chul Han to Baudrillard's determination of "hyperreality", Neil Postman's definition of "Technopoly" to Boyd and Crawford's critique of big data, all point towards this direction. Data growth has always improved at the expense of meaning. This study aims to focus on the main concepts and debates brought up by the authors and thinkers on the theoretical plane in the context of information technologies-digital culture criticism.