HACKING THE CRISIS OF DEMOCRACY: CAN MEDIA LITERACY SAVE US FROM ALGORITHMIC MODELLING OF POLITICAL PERCEPTION, WILL AND THOUGHT?

Abstract

Purpose. The aim of this paper is to discuss the possible causes of the crisis of democracy that affects broader democratic relations and processes in the spheres of so-ciality, culture, economy, and politics. The crisis of democracy is especially considered in the context of the technosphere which rests on the power of artificial intelligence and artificial life. The paper raises the question of the importance and role of media literacy as one of the key solutions to the crisis of democracy and the escalation of misinformation in public discourse. Approach / methodology. The paper is based on a systematic review and analysis of literature and available research that creates a theoretical framework for defining and understanding the crisis of democracy and its connection with the problems of techni-calization (datafication and algorithmization) of society and social processes, that is, with the challenges of the disinfodemic, which, through the marginalization of the truth and uncritical viewing of information, opens up space for the arrival of post-truth. Findings. This paper seeks to encourage reflection on the profession, decision mak-ers, but also the general public on balancing the sense of (individual and collective) responsibility and the possibility of real control, i.e. the responsibility of the individual and the responsibility of public and private sector. It also seeks to encourage dialogue on the need to create strategies and programs to promote and develop media literacy and critical thinking not only to counter misinformation, but also to critically understand social relations and distribute social and political power. Originality / value. The paper connects the issues of algorithmization, the crisis of democracy and media literacy. Media literacy is the foundation of informed citizenship, and thus the foundation of a democratic society. Knowledge, skills and competencies of media literacy in the information society can no longer refer only to the ability of an individual to successfully navigate through the ‘traditional’ information and media space, but must also refer to the issue of navigating the computational space of information for whose complex, dynamic and dissonant structure are increasingly more responsible cor-porate algorithms or algorithms of the so-called, third parties. Linking the three issues may never have been more necessary than in an age marked by general socio-political suspicion and apathy and a growing discrepancy between increasingly complex and sophisticated techniques of (dis)information and media (il)literacy.