SOFTWARE DELEGATION AND THE RECONFIGURATION OF EDITORIAL PRACTICES: THE MELTYGROUP CASE

Abstract

Based on a monograph on the logistical and managerial organization of an online media, this article presents an example of a productive model governed in part by a set of software agents. They are notably “delegated” to them a certain number of decisions concerning production as well as the valuation of activities. In doing so, they help to significantly configure the professional practices of the personnel of the media in question. However, the article maintains that the understanding of the automated action of these instruments requires a broad analytical perspective: it is a question of tightening the focal in order to embrace the strategic coherence of the elements online and offline and thus characterize the articulations between “artificial” and “human” intelligence. In the end, the article insists on the analytical requirement to understand this type of arrangement with regard to the social conditions of its production.