Media Studies Flashcards
Parallel platformization
Practices of platforms that are developed by the same entity, offer nearly the same features, but differ in their infrastructures, governance, and market
Platform localization/regionalization
When developers adapt existing platforms to new markets
Platformization theory
Provides a conceptual framework to understand the institutional dimensions of digital platforms and how these shape economic sectors and spheres of life
Culture production theory
Culture production theory examines the processes and dynamics involved in the creation, distribution, and consumption of cultural products. The theory explores the relationships between creators, industries, audiences, and the broader cultural context.
UGC
User Generated Content
PGC
Professionally generated content
Internet platform labour
Users hardly feel like they are engaging in labor, but create economic value
Circumscribed creativity
Creative potential being shaped or guided by platformization. E.g TikTok foster creation by facilitating easy creation
Short video
Video content that is shorter than 5 min and distributed via digital media platforms. It includes low cost production, highly spreadable content and blurry boundaries between producers and consumers
Adpocalypse
Concentrated efforts of brands to boycott Youtube Advertising since problematic content could appear alongside their ads
Platformization
Platform and cultural producers interacts and generate a process (shift in relations) called platformization. The process by which online applications shape cultural and social lives through their infrastructures, business models, and governance. It is when economies and cultures start to change around the platform. Platformization consist of the three dimensions infrastructures, markets and governance.
Cultural producers/production
Actors and org engaged in the creation, distrubution, marketing and monetization of symbolic artefacts
Cultural intermediaries
A second category of industry actors active on platforms. Describe the range of participants that broker and facilitate cultural creation, distribution, marketing, and monetization through platforms. For i.g advertisers, talent agencies etc.
Complementors
Independet providers of complementary products to mutual customers. From the perspective of platform companies, cultural producers, cultural intermediaries, and advertisers are all considered to be complementors.
Platform-dependent producers
Rely on platforms in the creation, distribution, marketing, and monetization of content and services
Platform-independent producers
Pursue these activities separately from platforms
Technological determinism
When technology start to determine how societies develop
Ethnocultural approach
Aggravating a big group of people into one category
Apps
Understood in the sense of ‘software applications’, apps are a subset of computer programs: they are computer programs that solve particular, often singular, user needs – originally, business needs
Platforms
Data infrastructures that facilitate, aggregate, monetize, and govern interactions between end-users and content and service providers
Data infrastructures
Supported by large data centers where all the data of the platform is stored (videos, text, photos etc). Not only stored but also exchanged with other entities. Used for advertisement etc
Features
Software-produced visual elements on an interface, features such as the favorite and like buttons say and suggest things
Affordances
A feature of something that makes you use it in a certain way. Can be understood as the actionable possibilities that a medium or object offers to users
Lower level affordances
What one can do on the platform (e.g like, comment etc) (synonymous with features) (lower level are embedded in bigger constructions)
Higher level affordances
Social structures that flow in the tech. More complex and abstract functionalities that go beyond basic functionalities. E.g Personalized Recommendations: Streaming services like Netflix and music platforms like Spotify use algorithms to offer personalized content recommendations based on user preferences.
User interface
What I see when I use a platform
Application programmer interface
The platform “from behind”
Walkthrough method
A systematic, step-by-step examination or exploration of a particular media work. The method aims to provide a detailed understanding of the various elements and aspects present in the media content. It provides a structured approach to understanding and analyzing the various elements and dimensions within the media by for e.g engaging with app’s interface to understand how it guides users and shape their experiences
Multi-sided markets
Platform markets are multi-sided markets. Different actors are connected through the platform. E.g connect end-user with content creators, sponsors etc.
Network effect
The value of a product or service increases as more people use it. A platform becomes more succesful/attractive when connecting different networks together. E.g the more content creators, the more end-user etc
Winner takes it all
Multi-sided markets can create a a winner-takes-all dynamic where the stars keep becoming bigger and hard for others to break through
Planetary Scale Computation
Refers to a global network of interconnected computers and devices working together. It involves using vast resources distributed worldwide to process and store massive amounts of data
Platforms are becoming underpin infrastructures to other industries. E.g VPN
Platform Evolution
The adjustment process for platforms (dynamism) makes cultural producers continuously having to adjust as well.
