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Platforms and Cultural Production. Thomas PoellЧитать онлайн книгу.

Platforms and Cultural Production - Thomas Poell


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been rather fuzzy (Hesmondhalgh, 2019). Platforms have only made it easier to switch between these two roles. Today’s TikTok user could, theoretically at least, become tomorrow’s viral sensation. Because the barriers to enter platform markets are considered to be so low, those who find fame online seem to do so overnight. A never-ending stream of aspirational stories feeds into the powerful meritocratic myth that any talented individual who can design an app, create a TikTok dance, or produce a podcast has a chance to become a star (Duffy & Wissinger, 2017).

       Different industries and regions

      While the relations between platforms, complementors, and end-users can be analyzed in broad terms, the particular ways that platformization unfolds across the various segments comprising the cultural industries, as well as within specific geographic regions, are markedly diverse. This diversity is in part due to the strategic choices of cultural producers, but it also owes much to the “nature” of specific modes of cultural production, including the historical trajectories of particular industry segments in particular cultural contexts (Miège, 2011). Platformization is by no means an all-encompassing logic; nor does it affect all industries equally. The companies that operate major platforms, such as Alphabet Inc., Facebook, and Apple, are among the highest valued in the world, but they still compete with, or in some cases are outmatched by, legacy conglomerates, media companies, and telecommunication companies.

      Platform ecosystems, moreover, evolve unevenly, as do the practices of their inhabitants. By providing examples from different industry segments and regions around the globe, this book will illuminate the considerable variation in the relations between platforms and cultural producers. Exploring these relations, we make a basic distinction between platform-dependent and platform-independent cultural producers. Platform-dependent producers rely on platforms in the creation, distribution, marketing, and monetization of content and services. By contrast, platform-independent producers pursue these activities separately from platforms. As will become clear in the following chapters, many cultural producers are positioned on the spectrum somewhere in between platform-dependence and independence. For example, a digital news organization can be dependent on platforms for the distribution and marketing of its content, but they operate independently for the creation and monetization of content. Thus, when we say either platform-dependent or platform-independent, we will work to qualify these labels.

      The digital games industry, meanwhile, might be thought of as a prototype of platform-dependence. Before the advent of digital distribution, platform companies were involved in most aspects of game development and circulation; as software, games are always infrastructurally integrated with the hardware or software platform on which they run (Montfort & Bogost, 2009). Simply put, if you insert a PlayStation disc into an Xbox, you will not be able to play that game. Over time, the relationships between tool developers, game publishers, game developers, and game platform operators changed substantially. In the early 1980s, individuals and small teams had the ability to develop and publish titles. However, game publishing formalized “aggressively” to become a major industry (Keogh, 2019). This transformation was spurred in part by the development of dedicated game consoles, such as the Atari VCS and Nintendo Entertainment System, followed in the 1990s by the PlayStation and Xbox (Kerr, 2017). While dedicated game consoles are still a key pillar of the game industry, a number of other platforms have emerged, enabling the development of entirely new game genres, business models, and audiences. For instance, a decade ago, Facebook enabled the rise of so-called “social games,” such as FarmVille and Texas Hold’em Poker. At the same time, mobile app stores have become an even more lucrative distribution outlet for game developers of all stripes; in fact, they now account for nearly half the global games market.

      Finally, considerable variations in the relations between platforms and cultural producers can also be observed across geographic regions. While this book does not systematically explore these variations in depth – if only because we lack the necessary regional expertise – it does draw upon international examples, while also pointing to avenues for further research. Building on our own research, the book primarily focuses on platforms and cultural production in the US, Western Europe, and China. Other regions, especially India, Japan, and Southeast Asia will be brought in to illustrate vital differences and surprising correspondences in how platformization takes shape. The reason to include regional examples is to provide a framework with enough flexibility to develop further case studies and comparisons.

      Having defined


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