The Algorithmic Circular Circulation

Rereading Bourdieu from TikTok's For You Page

Abstract

This article proposes a theoretical reflection that revisits the concept of the circular circulation of information, formulated by Pierre Bourdieu in On Television (1997), to analyze the logic of algorithmic visibility on short-video platforms, using TikTok as a paradigmatic case. The general objective is to understand how the For You Page recommendation system reconfigures this closed feedback loop among producers, and how it impacts the homogenization of digital cultural production. Through a dialogue between the sociology of fields and platform studies, this work argues that the algorithm introduces a non-human mediator that quantifies and rewards conformity in real time, disciplining creation prior to its circulation. It concludes that contemporary homogenization does not operate primarily on user reception, but rather on creator supply, governed by the fear of invisibility.

Archive of the approved version, currently in the editorial process