FOR WHOSE INTEREST IT SERVES: FOSTERING ALGORITHMIC AWARENESS THROUGH A MULTILITERACIES FIRST-YEAR COMPOSITION PEDAGOGY

Abstract

Algorithmic agents like generative AI and user personalization filters increasingly mediate information retrieval and discursive practices online. In response, the teaching of research and rhetoric must account for students’ own “algorithmic awareness,” or their demonstrated use and critical sentiments of algorithms. Drawing inspiration from algorithmic and digital literacy scholarship, this study utilizes the college-level first-year writing course as a space to foster, capture, and analyze students’ algorithmic awareness. A multiliteracies curriculum was used to examine students’ demonstrated awareness toward social media and search algorithms. Data collection was multimodal, including typed reflections alongside recordings. Digital multiliteracies and discursive psychology informed the analysis of how students demonstrated awareness through talk and text as well as actions taken to pursue various research and rhetorical goals. Findings indicated that students’ reported use of algorithms often aligned with their critical sentiments. Students who favored accessible, easy-to-use algorithms selected their sources among what I called the “littoral zone,” or the top of search results, whereas students who expressed skepticism toward this top-level arrangement reported moving beyond it. Some students moved beyond the search page altogether, navigating through webpages and embedded hyperlinks to locate additional sources. While deeper reported click or scroll engagement generally coincided with deeper critical awareness toward algorithms, students did not demonstrate awareness consistently. In fact, the awareness students showcased when using search engines sometimes directly contrasted with their demonstrated use of social media and generative AI. This discrepancy suggests that algorithmic awareness isn’t a stable, generalizable state of mind; rather, it can be considered an embodied practice influenced by interface design alongside intended search motivations. These findings suggest that recent changes in web-based search interfaces, particularly those with AI-generated content summaries that disincentivize clickthroughs, may encourage littoral engagement and influence demonstrations of algorithmic awareness. Implications of this study underscore the benefits of tracking the ways students construct and describe their engagement with algorithms multimodally, using both reflective renderings and recorded class activities. It additionally presents a call to action to software developers and education policy-makers, challenging the techno-utopian claims that position algorithms as inherently agential or emancipatory forces in the networked public sphere.