The Summarizer as Horizon of Reception: The AI Overview Capture Registry as a Founding Dataset for Machine-Mediated Reception Studies (EA-SEI-MMRS-DATASET-01 v1.3 — with Best-Case PER Correction)

The Summarizer as Horizon of Reception. This paper introduces machine-mediated reception studies: the study of how machine systems receive, transform, compress, attribute, misattribute, and redistribute cultural meaning. Its central claim is that the AI summarizer now functions as a horizon of reception (Jauss 1982): for many users, the machine-composed summary becomes the first effective encounter with a cultural object. As a founding dataset, the paper presents the AI Overview Capture Registry (EA-WG-CAPTURES-01 v7.2, DOI 10.5281/zenodo.20707509), 131 documented captures of Google AI Overview, AI Mode, and knowledge-panel responses. Six recurrent patterns are identified with frequencies and classical reception analogues: morphological compression (29%), disambiguation failure (15%), compositional bystanding (6%), canonical reinflation (12%), temporal drag (2%), and epistemic hedging (16%). In one case, a minority scholarly interpretation of Sappho Fragment 31 is now presented as the default understanding. Files: EA-SEI-MMRS-DATASET-01-v1.2.pdf (232 pages, 221 embedded screenshots), full markdown, standalone article (no appendix, for LLM review), coded-patterns.json (131 pattern-coded entries), MMRS-workplan.md (journal planning document). This paper uses "reception" in a functional rather than phenomenological sense: the machine does not need to "understand" Sappho in order to alter Sappho's reception. Publication venue: Machine-Mediated Reception Studies (Preprint). machinemediation.org (forthcoming).