{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,29]],"date-time":"2026-04-29T09:27:58Z","timestamp":1777454878772,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":28,"publisher":"SAGE Publications","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2019,1,1]],"date-time":"2019-01-01T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1546300800000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/page\/policies\/text-and-data-mining-license"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["journals.sagepub.com"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Big Data &amp; Society"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2019,1]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>Critical algorithm scholarship has demonstrated the difficulties of attributing accountability for the actions and effects of algorithmic systems. In this commentary, we argue that we cannot stop at denouncing the lack of accountability for algorithms and their effects but must engage the broader systems and distributed agencies that algorithmic systems exist within; including standards, regulations, technologies, and social relations. To this end, we explore accountability in \u201cthe Generated Detective,\u201d an algorithmically generated comic. Taking up the mantle of detectives ourselves, we investigate accountability in relation to this piece of experimental fiction. We problematize efforts to effect accountability through transparency by undertaking a simple operation: asking for permission to re-publish a set of the algorithmically selected and modified words and images which make the frames of the comic. Recounting this process, we demonstrate slippage between the \u201ccomplication\u201d of the algorithm and the obscurity of the legal and institutional structures in which it exists.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1177\/2053951719826856","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2019,2,20]],"date-time":"2019-02-20T15:24:10Z","timestamp":1550676250000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/sage-journals-update-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":30,"title":["Beyond mystery: Putting algorithmic accountability in context"],"prefix":"10.1177","volume":"6","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0673-1173","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Elizabeth","family":"Reddy","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Engineering, Design, & Society, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Baki","family":"Cakici","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Technologies in Practice, IT University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7692-0514","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Andrea","family":"Ballestero","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Anthropology, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"179","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2019,2,19]]},"reference":[{"key":"bibr1-2053951719826856","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/1461444816676645"},{"key":"bibr2-2053951719826856","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1555-2934.2012.01196.x"},{"key":"bibr3-2053951719826856","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1111\/amet.12129"},{"key":"bibr4-2053951719826856","unstructured":"Borenstein G (2014) Generated Detective. Available at: http:\/\/gregborenstein.com\/comics\/generated_detective\/(accessed 27 February 2018)."},{"issue":"1","key":"bibr5-2053951719826856","first-page":"93","volume":"55","author":"Crawford K","year":"2014","journal-title":"Boston College Law Review"},{"key":"bibr6-2053951719826856","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/2053951717726554"},{"key":"bibr7-2053951719826856","volume-title":"Algorithmic Accountability Reporting: On the Investigation of Black Boxes. A Tow\/Knight Brief","author":"Diakopoulos N","year":"2013"},{"key":"bibr8-2053951719826856","volume-title":"Data & Society Tech Algorithm Briefing: How Algorithms Perpetuate Racial Bias and Inequality","author":"Donovan J","year":"2018"},{"key":"bibr9-2053951719826856","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.7551\/mitpress\/10767.001.0001"},{"key":"bibr10-2053951719826856","volume-title":"Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor","author":"Eubanks V","year":"2018"},{"key":"bibr11-2053951719826856","unstructured":"GitHub (2014) Issues thread: Generated detective: A NaNoGenMo comic. Available at: https:\/\/github.com\/dariusk\/NaNoGenMo-2014\/issues\/70(accessed 27 February 2018)."},{"key":"bibr12-2053951719826856","first-page":"939","volume":"53","author":"Grimmelmann J","year":"2008","journal-title":"New York Law School Law Review"},{"key":"bibr13-2053951719826856","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1215\/00382876-2831665"},{"key":"bibr14-2053951719826856","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1007\/s10676-010-9233-7"},{"issue":"1","key":"bibr15-2053951719826856","first-page":"51","volume":"3","author":"McKelvey F","year":"2010","journal-title":"Global Media Journal: Canadian Edition"},{"key":"bibr16-2053951719826856","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/2053951716679679"},{"key":"bibr17-2053951719826856","author":"Nadler A","year":"2018","journal-title":"Data & Society"},{"key":"bibr18-2053951719826856","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/0162243915598056"},{"key":"bibr19-2053951719826856","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.18574\/nyu\/9781479833641.001.0001"},{"key":"bibr20-2053951719826856","first-page":"235","volume":"9","author":"Pasquale F","year":"2011","journal-title":"Journal on Telecommunications and High Technology Law"},{"key":"bibr21-2053951719826856","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.4159\/harvard.9780674736061"},{"key":"bibr22-2053951719826856","first-page":"17","volume":"30","author":"Reddy E","year":"2016","journal-title":"Revista Iberoamericana de Comunicaci\u00f3n"},{"key":"bibr23-2053951719826856","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.2458\/v25i1.23076"},{"key":"bibr24-2053951719826856","author":"Sandvig C","year":"2014","journal-title":"Paper presented to Data and Discrimination: Converting Critical Concerns into Productive Inquiry at the Annual Meeting of the International Communication Association"},{"key":"bibr25-2053951719826856","volume-title":"Can an Algorithm be Unethical Annual Meeting of the International Communication Association","author":"Sandvig C","year":"2015"},{"key":"bibr26-2053951719826856","volume-title":"Knowing algorithms. 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