Open AccessBig Data for a Fairer Democracy?
Author(s) -
Jessica Heesen
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
international journal of information ethics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1614-1687
DOI - 10.29173/irie148
Subject(s) - public sphere , big data , normative , argument (complex analysis) , democracy , sociology , political science , law and economics , positive economics , epistemology , computer science , economics , politics , law , data mining , biochemistry , chemistry , philosophy
Big data-analysis is linked to the expectation to provide a general image of socially relevant topics and processes. Similar to this, the idea of the public sphere involves being representative of all citizens and of important topics and problems. This contribution, on one side, aims to explain how a normative concept of the public sphere could be infiltrated by big data. On the other, it will discuss how participative processes and common wealth can profit from a thorough use of big data analysis. As important parts of the argument, two concepts will be introduced: the numerical public (as a public that is constituted by machine-communication) and total politicisation (as a loss of negative freedom of expression).