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Inside the Rage Machine: How social media algorithms are rewiring our world

Posted on • Arts and social sciences, Education, languages and health, TV and radio

A new OU / BBC programme, Inside the Rage Machine begins Monday 16th March at 9pm on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer.

Marianna Spring, the BBC’s Social Media Investigations Correspondent, uncovers the inside story of how social media algorithms designed to connect us have been helping to tear us apart. Insider testimony and whistleblower documents expose a machine thriving on outrage and division as part of a business model. Radicalisation. Real world violence. Societies fractured. Consequences of a system built to shape how we think, feel and see the world.

The series was supported by Dr Caroline Tagg, Senior Lecturer, English Language & Applied Linguistics and Professor Kesi Mahendran, Professor of Social and Political Psychology, who provided the academic expertise for the programme.

Reflecting on her work on Inside the Rage Machine, Dr Caroline Tagg said

It was fascinating to work with the BBC in balancing high drama with academic nuance to tell the unfolding story of the often-devastating real-world impact of social media algorithms. The documentary gives viewers a chance to hear the voices of the very people ‘inside the rage machine’, from engineers and integrity teams to those radicalised by social media content or impacted by rioting. This is a subject that affects everyone today – even people not on social media – and I hope it helps viewers better understand the problem and what needs to change. 

Commenting on the documentary, Dr Kesi Mahendran explained

Inside the Rage Machine investigates the key disinformation algorithms by which social media develops hot politics, rewarding outrage and encouraging polarised extreme actions. Together with my colleague Dr Anthony English we drew from the OppAttune transnational project to advise on how extremism, rage and hate speech can seduce us all by chiming in with our worldviews. These algorithms are not inevitable, they can be altered with greater media and political literacy, integrity teams, transparency and holding social media companies to account. We really valued inputting into this troubling yet constructive documentary.

Supporting Online content:

Visit our Broadcast & Partnerships site OU Connect where you can find exclusive bonus videos with Marianna Spring on how to stay alert to algorithms.

This series was commissioned by Broadcast & Partnerships and is supported by the Faculty of Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies (WELS) and the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS), with particular relevance to R54 BA (Honours) English Language, F97 MA in Linguistics and Q83 | BSC (Honours) Social Psychology.

 

Commissioned by Dr Caroline Ogilvie, Director, Broadcast & Partnerships

  • Academic Consultants: Dr Caroline Tagg and Professor Kesi Mahendran
  • Media Fellows: Professor Erica Borgstrom and Professor Zoe Walkington
  • Broadcast Project Manager: Clair Robinson
  • Supporting Online Content: Steff Easom

Image Credit: BBC