How it actually works: Algorithmic lore videos as market devices

On YouTube, self-styled algorithmic experts claim to know how algorithms "actually work." However, their knowledge is largely speculative. Developing recent work that pays attention to algorithmic expertise, I argue that algorithmic lore videos are "market devices" which are economically productive for the platform in four ways: they (1) legitimize platform narratives of algorithmic objectivity, (2) teach creators how to calculate the value of content and format it according to platform metrics, (3) encourage creators to build and govern audiences, and (4) justify continued content production even when it does not pay off for creators. Thus, despite claiming to describe "how the algorithm actually works," algorithmic lore videos are performative; by teaching creators how to understand and act in the platform economy they do important work to bring the platform's "visibility markets"—its labor market of content creators engaging in content production and its goods market of content to be watched—into being.