Managing visibility on YouTube through algorithmic gossip

“So far, YouTube beauty communities have been examined as they curate microcelebrity (Senft, 2008) and perform entrepreneurship (Duffy, 2017), and intimately connect with their followers (García-Rapp, 2017).”

“Communities of practice, such as Internet celebrities, use shared ideas and knowledge (Bishop, 2019) to negotiate the rules established by engineers to achieve visibility by adapting their own behaviour (Cotter 2019).”

“…opaque governance leaves users to make sense of their visibility (and invisibility) through a mix of theories propagated through “ algorithmic gossip ” (Bishop, 2019), their attempts to defeat the algorithms are connected to the same synoptical network of surveillance that platforms affords them.”

“…conducting strategic trials and tests to comprehend algorithms functionality (Cotter, 2019), engaging in algorithm discussions in which theories and strategies are shared and implemented (Bishop, 2019), and optimizing their contents based on the insights derived from the discussions (Bishop, 2018).”

“Creator status and reputation is most easily documented through metrics and visibility strategies (see also Bishop 2019, 2023).”

“Algorithmic gossip and folklore have proliferated online as users seek to enhance media visibility in the face of opaque social media algorithms (Bishop 2019), all the more so given the precarity many creators experience in the industry (Soriano, Charles Cabalquinto, and Hannah Panaligan 2021).”

“This ‘risk of invisibility’ (Bishop, 2019, p. 2591) motivates experimentation with LmPs on the part of mapped subjects .”

“Calibrated femininity encompasses self-optimisation techniques (Bishop 2019) employed by content creators to foster female, homosocial bonds, which are functional to generate affective response and, in turn, build social status.”

“Recent scholarship has focused on users’ awareness and understanding of a specific plat-form’s algorithm through interviews and tweets (Bucher, 2017) and the use of ethnographic methods to explore users’ imaginaries as ‘gossip’ (Bishop, 2019) or ‘stories about algorithms’ (Schellewald, 2022).”

“Along with the For You Feed's (FYF) opaque (Bishop 2019; Bucher 2012) algorithmic mechanisms (Chen and Shi 2022), users can respond and reappropriate posts via duet and stitch (Ichara Sinta 2022).”

“…workings of the ever-evolving algorithm are commercially protected but information has been deduced from Google personnel (for example, Alex Beutel, Paul Covington, Sagar Jain, Can Xu, Jia Li, Vince Gatto, and Ed H. Chi 2018; Kevin Roose 2019) and spread through “algorithmic gossip” (Bishop 2019).”

“By 2017, it was evident that YouTube’s algorithmic logic and incentivization mechanisms favored certain users over others (Bishop, 2019; Bucher, 2018; Burgess & Green, 2018).”

“rstandings, or “folktheories”ofalgorithms[17,18]shapeuserbehavior[38]. Advanced users try to leverage what they know about how a system works in order to achieve more visibility on social media feeds [7, 8, 12]. Existing approaches for making the functioning of algorithmic systems more transparent have primarily adopt…”

“42 Bishop (2019), p. 2589.”

“Studies have analyzed how digital in fl uencers and social media bloggers (Bishop, 2019; Cotter, 2019; Meara, 2019; Richter and Ye, 2024), along with fan communities (He and Li, 2023; Yin, 2020; Zhang et al., 2022), deploy savvy strategies to interpret and align with platform algorithms, thereby…”

“…how creators engage in various forms of algorithmic labor, labor that goes into managing algorithmic visibility through their knowledge and imaginaries about how algorithms work (Bucher, 2016) in order to counter the threat of invisibility (Bishop, 2019; Cotter, 2019; Duffy & Meisner, 2022).”

“…by having a degree of agency in how the algorithmic experience unfolds, and hence a degree of expertise through forms of algorithmic gossip (see Bishop 2019), seek to game this experience in order to maximise their political, cultural and economic position, while minimising the ones by the…”

“Within feminist media studies, a multitude of analyses has been conducted centralizing plat-formized labor (e.g., Bishop, 2019, Duffy and Pruchniewska, 2017, Mendes, 2021), providing valuable insights into how feminized entrepreneurship in the platform economy relies on technical, creative, and…”

“…systems by exogenous information, such as media reports on related topics (DeVito et al., 2018), or “gossip” discussions with other users (Bishop, 2019), and endogenous one developing an “algorithmic imaginary” meaning an algorithmic representation of how algorithms would be, work, and…”

“In the literature, this kind of sense-making is often referred to as folk theories (DeVito et al., 2018; Huang et al., 2022; Moran et al., 2022), algorithmic imaginaries (Bucher, 2017), algorithmic folklore (de Seta, 2024; Savolainen, 2022) or algorithmic gossip (Bishop, 2019).”

“…‘ algorithmic imaginaries ’ (Bucher, 2016; Schellewald, 2022), how users ‘ gossip ’ and develop ‘ algorithmic lore ’ around how the systems work to ‘ game ’ the systems (Bishop, 2019, 2020; MacDonald, 2023) or engage in forms of algorithmic resistance (Ettlinger, 2018; Kazansky and Milan, 2021;…”

“Thus, while an advertising connection can help YouTube topics become more professional and hence more viewed (Bishop, 2018b, 2019), videos can be viewed without this direct connection.”

“Indeed, the filters are different and mainly institutionalized through the algorithm’s gatekeeping (Bishop 2019; Napoli 2015).”

“CSCW distinguished itself from its sister community, human – computer interaction (HCI), by attempting to understand not merely how human-centered technology could or should be designed, but, quite precisely, how technology could or should be designed to best support work (Greif, 1988, 2019).”

“…que este tipo de cláusulas permiten el shadow banning (expulsión/exclusión silenciosa), un mecanismo mediante el cual YouTube penaliza, invisibiliza o censura ciertos contenidos que no se ajustan a las normas morales de la plataforma, o a los esquemas ideológicos de sus moderadores (Bishop, 2019).”

“In order to overcome these challenges, adult content creators recur to several strategies, likely the outcome of a trial-and-error approach, but possibly also subject to forms of algorithmic gossiping (Bishop, 2019).”

“Algorithmic content has received much concern, as some members of Instagram and TikTok's Black and gay users all report excessive suppression or shadow bans (Bishop, 2019; Noble, 2018; Velasquez et al., 2023).”

“Introduction to Wrapped and our conceptual toolkit, including terms like ‘algo-rithmic gossip’ (Bishop, 2019) and ‘algorithmic imaginaries’ (Bucher, 2017); 2.”

“While content differences across animal types may partly explain variation in popularity, this algorithm–creator–audience feedback loop ensures that what becomes most visible also reflects what resonates with users (Bishop, 2019).”

“…media platforms, which is consistent with the results of studies surrounding media experiences and obtainment of literacy for content management algorithms employed by online platforms (Bishop 2019; Bucher 2017; Eslami et al. 2015; Klawitter and Hargittai 2018; Rader and Gray 2015; Swart 2021).”

“…are often discredited by platforms (Cotter, 2021) and peer review alike, mirroring societal disdain against gossip – an important safeguarding tool that women and marginalized communities often use to protect themselves and thrive under patriarchal, structurally oppressive systems (Bishop, 2019).”

“Re fl exive thematic analysis was adopted to understand the experiences and realities of participants, guided by the methodological insights of Braun and Clarke (2006, 2019, 2021).”

“For instance, YouTube,”

“, 2019), and algorithmic knowledge (Bishop, 2019). In the context of this article, digital intermediation is the process of visibility through the value exchange of cultural artefacts across unseen infrastructures. It is through this process that social and cultural information is not only traditionally produced and c…”

“Indeed, Wattpad further consolidated its authority on algorithmic lore when it erased years of “algorithmic gossip” (Bishop, 2019) shared among Wattpad users on the platform’s community forums in late 2020, citing concerns about the platform’s ability to provide a safe, adequately moderated space…”

“Paradigmatic of what Sophie Bishop (2019) has called “ algorithmic gossip, ” 4 one form of creators ’ responses to platform governance and copyright enforcement, the videos equally demonstrate the “ layers of opacity ” that mark platform policies and how “ creators are often left to draw inferences…”

“Ava endures the pressure for the collaboration post to perform well and tries to utilize all the strategies and gossips (Sophie Bishop 2019) she understands that can help with visibility.”

“(2019: 50) The visibility research paradigm therefore fails to address suf fi ciently how media encounters in fl uence tastes, interests, and habits in the process of conversion (Webster, 2016).”

“…becoming ‘algor-ithmically recognizable’ (Gillespie, 2017), rooted in TikTok’s own public information on their content recommendation system (TikTok, 2024; Wang et al., 2016) Even if we cannot know for certain why some videos get promoted, or how to ensure content gains visibility (Bishop, 2019).”

“Bishop (2019) highlights how YouTube creators often rely on speculative ‘folk theo-ries’ or ‘algorithmic myths’ to navigate opaque algorithms and optimise content visibility.”

“These challenges often stem from a lack of understanding of the platform's algorithm (Bishop 2019), which significantly affects user interaction with content (Ameen et al. 2024).”

“In contexts where algorithms help to manage the overabundance of content by making normative decisions about who and what should be made visible (Bishop, 2019), plat-formised visibility becomes inextricably connected with algorithmic visibility.”

“…research has examined a specific group of users, such as influencers and content creators, to illustrate their strategic practices as playing the visibility game, explaining how they acquire algorithmic knowledge and incorporate it into their interactions on platforms (Bishop, 2019; Cotter, 2019).”

“As a result, social media users often develop “algorithmic imaginaries” (Bucher, 2017) or engage in “algorithmic gossip” (Bishop, 2019) to make sense of how “algorithmic platform governance” operates (Savolainen, 2022).”

“Recommender systems shape collective behaviours and perceptions (Laufer & Nissenbaum, 2023); influence the distribution of symbolic and material goods (Bishop, 2019; Born et al., 2021) and come into tension with public values (Helberger et al., 2021).”

“During public debates or crisis events, users frequently engage in actions such as liking, commenting “push this up,” and sharing posts, transforming emotional resonance into action-oriented empathy aimed at boosting algorithmic weight and enhancing event visibility (25, 26).”

“Additionally, informal exchanges between users about how to better navigate algorithms are also an important way of gaining algorithmic knowledge—this information spreads much like “algorithmic gossip” [7], and some of the gossip is stabilized and formalized into folk algorithms .”

“A large number of studies use qualitative interviews (Choi and Behm-Morawitz, 2017; Sobande, 2017; Bishop, 2019), video ethnographic methods or netnographic methods (García-Rapp, 2017; Mardon et al., 2018), qualitative content analysis, or discourse analysis (Montes-Vozmediano et al., 2018; Scolari…”

“business, creators have also appropriated it to engage collectively in “algorithmic gossip” (Bishop, 2019) around social issues.”

“And beyond monetization lurks the broader question of how creators optimize their content and referencing strategies to “make it” on a highly competitive platform that uses dynamic algorithms to modulate visibility (cf. Bishop, 2019).”

“Our sampling process was influenced by YouTube’s algorithm, which is known to be strategically manipulated by content producers and algorithmic ‘experts’ to enhance the visibility of some forms of content over others (Bishop, 2019, 2020).”

“It follows that maintaining visibility in algorithmically governed spaces informs income and opportunities for content creators (Bishop, 2019).”

“However, consistently with previous research on creator communities and de-platforming (Are, 2022; Bishop, 2019; Cotter, 2021), the speci fi c experiences of creators are often the only type of information we have about platform processes, making users experts in their experiences and, therefore,…”

“As a result, social researchers tend to look to the accounts of everyday users to explore how algorithmic processes are experienced and theorized, rather than focusing upon the technical attributes of algorithms (Bishop, 2019; Bucher, 2017; Schellewald, 2022).”

“But little attention is paid to how assetization restructures the labor process of, for example, content creators, from whom rent is drawn from, tangentially algorithms can be understood as restructuring the labor process for rent extraction, which has caused algorithmic gossip (Bishop, 2019).”

“…Fairness Representational fairness [73], [122], [39], [31], [116], [54], [15], [33], [50], [19], [25], [22], [59] Allocative fairness [13], [18], [39], [33], [94], [74], [43], [95] Governance fairness [56], [129], [122], [35], [45], [82], [130], [43], [95] Interactional fairness…”

“Conversely, many individual creators—neither health professionals nor public figures [34,35]—share autobiographical narratives that glorify thinness or describe recovery, fostering emotional immersion and parasocial bonds, and sometimes integrate monetization strategies [1,2,36,37].”

“…of this technological aspect of algorithms, mostly focusing on the opacity in automatic decision-makings and its challenges to credibility and justice accompanying in various areas, such as banking, journalism, labor, and so on (Bishop, 2019; Cotter, 2019; Duguay, 2018; Shorey and Howard, 2016).”

“Although some studies have examined how algorithmic knowledge gained from algorithmic experts, peer discussions, or informal gossip (Bishop, 2019, 2020; Schellewald, 2022) affect online interactions, they highlight users’ tactical practices and situated interpretations by treating algorithmic…”

“Through these efforts, they generate and circulate algorithmic knowledge within their communities, a practice Bishop (2019) terms ‘algorithmic gossip’, highlighting its role as a subversive response to the asymmetrical power dynamics between users and platforms.”

“Current studies of digital cultural production typically focus on digitally native producers such as YouTubers and Instagrammers (Bishop, 2019; Duffy, 2017; O’Meara, 2019; Petre et al., 2019).”

“That is because creators need would go through creator moderation [29, 30], where multiple governance mechanisms exercise control beyond creator’s content or speech to their careers such as income [7], visibility [6], and audience engagement.”