Exploring how digital platforms are reconfiguring the cultural industries

The most impressive and illuminating research yet published on how digital platforms are reshaping the cultural industries.”
David Hesmondhalgh, University of Leeds

“The authors expertly explore the ways that platforms have produced opportunities and constraints for media creators. Their account is clear and engaging and will doubtlessly provide a foundation for many conversations about the role of platforms and culture in the coming decade.”
Amanda Lotz, Queensland University of Technology

“[It] will be [a] valuable reference [book] for students in the field of media and cultural studies. [It] may also inspire researchers and practitioners in related fields to understand how culture is created and modulated on platforms, and how culture can be studied in the platform environment.”
Zhen Ye, Media, Culture & Society

"This is a very well written and engaging book which clearly lays out the critical issues of platform based cultural production. It is essential reading for any re-searchers and students interested in the politics of platforms and social media, con-temporary cultural production and the role of platforms in consumer culture."
Karen Patel, Journal of Consumer Culture

"Platforms and Cultural Production provides a solid introductory overview of the growing tendency towards platformization in cultural creation, at both the infrastructural and cultural levels. Approachably presented, this work will be of interest to all levels of university students and researchers interested in platform studies. This book is a thoroughly researched and persuasive portrait of how new media technologies in the cultural industries constitute extensions of—rather than ruptures with—traditional legacy media apparatuses." 
Danielle Rudnicka-Lavoie, Canadian Journal of Communication

 

This collaborative research project explores the platformization of cultural production against the backdrop of wider transformations in the technologies, cultures, and political economies of digital media.

 Our definition of platformization focuses on the penetration of economic, infrastructural, and governmental extensions of digital platforms (e.g. Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Tencent, Alibaba) in the cultural industries (e.g. journalism, games, social media entertainment), as well as the organization of cultural practices of labor, creativity, and citizenship around these platforms.

You can watch a video of us presenting our 2022 book, “Platforms and Cultural Production” at the LSE Digital Ethnography Collective here. Or listen to us on the New Books Network podcast.

Principal Investigators