Media Backends
Digital Infrastructures and Sociotechnical Relations
Published on 5. December 2023
Book
Hardback
320 pages
978-0-252-04534-9 (ISBN)
Description
Exploring how we make, distribute, and consume today's media systems Media backends--the electronics, labor, and operations behind our screens--significantly influence our understanding of the sociotechnical relations, economies, and operations of media. Lisa Parks, Julia Velkova, and Sander De Ridder assemble essays that delve into the evolving politics of the media infrastructural landscape. Throughout, the contributors draw on feminist, queer, and intersectional criticism to engage with infrastructural and industrial issues. This focus reflects a concern about the systemic inequalities that emerge when tech companies and designers fail to address workplace discrimination and algorithmic violence and exclusions. Moving from smart phones to smart dust, the essayists examine topics like artificial intelligence, human-machine communication, and links between digital infrastructures and public service media alongside investigations into the algorithmic backends at Netflix and Spotify, Google's hyperscale data centers, and video-on-demand services in India.
A fascinating foray into an expanding landscape of media studies, Media Backends illuminates the behind-the-screen processes influencing our digital lives.
Contributors: Mark Andrejevic, Philippe Bouquillion, Jonathan Cohn, Faithe J. Day, Sander De Ridder, Fatima Gaw, Christine Ithurbide, Anne Kaun, Amanda Lagerkvist, Alexis Logsdon, Stine Lomborg, Tim Markham, Vicki Mayer, Rahul Mukherjee, Kaarina Nikunen, Lisa Parks, Vibodh Parthasarathi, Philipp Seuferling, Ranjit Singh, Jacek Smolicki, Fredrik Stiernstedt, Matilda Tudor, Julia Velkova, and Zala Volcic
A fascinating foray into an expanding landscape of media studies, Media Backends illuminates the behind-the-screen processes influencing our digital lives.
Contributors: Mark Andrejevic, Philippe Bouquillion, Jonathan Cohn, Faithe J. Day, Sander De Ridder, Fatima Gaw, Christine Ithurbide, Anne Kaun, Amanda Lagerkvist, Alexis Logsdon, Stine Lomborg, Tim Markham, Vicki Mayer, Rahul Mukherjee, Kaarina Nikunen, Lisa Parks, Vibodh Parthasarathi, Philipp Seuferling, Ranjit Singh, Jacek Smolicki, Fredrik Stiernstedt, Matilda Tudor, Julia Velkova, and Zala Volcic
Reviews / Votes
"What happens in the backend, behind our screens, in the sociotechnical systems that constitute our media space? Parks, Velkova, and De Ridder have collected an impressive bouquet of enlightening articles, offering a wide scope of critical perspectives on what happens in the invisible parts of the internet, including its infrastructure. Reading through this collection, you start seeing the bigger picture of a media landscape in transformation and how this connects to global societal transformations. A true mind opener."--JosE van Dijck, author of The Culture of Connectivity: A Critical History of Social MediaMore details
Series
Edition
First Edition, First Edition
Language
English
Place of publication
Baltimore
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Edition type
New edition
Illustrations
25 black & white photographs
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 156 mm
Weight
454 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-252-04534-9 (9780252045349)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Lisa Parks is distinguished professor of film and media studies at the University of California at Santa Barbara and directs the Global Media Technologies and Cultures Lab. Julia Velkova is an associate professor of media and communications and of technology and social change at LinkOEping University. Sander De Ridder is an assistant professor of media studies at the University of Antwerp.
Content
Introduction Lisa Parks, Julia Velkova, and Sander De Ridder Part I: Sensing, Automating, Mediating
1 Atmospheric Mediation: From Smart Dust to Customizable Governance Mark Andrejevic, and Zala Volcic
2 The Other Side of the Smart Phone: MEMS Sensors and the Tiny Matter of Mediation Lisa Parks
3 EugenicTech: Three Perspectives On the (B)anality of AI Jonathan Cohn
4 Coding and Encoding Streamed Media: The Cultural Infrastructure of the Netflix Recommender System Fatima Gaw
5 Engaging Opacity: Spotify and the Poesis of Algorithmic Backends Tim Markham
Part II: Datafying, Serving, Distributing
6 The Social Mapping of Hyperscale Data Center Regions: Placemaking, Infrastructuring, Curating Vicki Mayer and Julia Velkova
7 Cross-sectoral Relations in VoD Markets: Frontend, Backend, and Deepend in India Vibodh Parthasarathi, Philippe Bouquillion, and Christine Ithurbide
8 Serving Machines and Heterotopias: Data Entry Work in Prisons and Refugee Camps in the US and Uganda Anne Kaun, Alexis Logsdon, Philipp Seuferling and Fredrik Stiernstedt
9 Mythical Media Backends: Human-Machine Communication's Cruel Promises Sander De Ridder
10 The Black Living Data Booklet Faithe Day
Part III: Subjecting, Humanizing, Repairing
11 Sonorous Surfaces, Biased Backends: The Gendered Voices of AI Assistants as Existential Media Amanda Lagerkvist, Jacek Smolicki, and Matilda Tudor
12 On Meaning and Exploitation: Everyday AI and Productivity Tracking in Denmark Stine Lomborg
13 The Backend Work of Data Subjects: Ordinary Challenges of Living with Data in India and the US Ranjit Singh
14 Repairing Algorithms, Rebuilding Data Paths: Digital Infrastructures, Public Service Media, and Material Solidarity in Europe Kaarina Nikunen
Afterword Rahul Mukherjee
Contributor Bios
Index
1 Atmospheric Mediation: From Smart Dust to Customizable Governance Mark Andrejevic, and Zala Volcic
2 The Other Side of the Smart Phone: MEMS Sensors and the Tiny Matter of Mediation Lisa Parks
3 EugenicTech: Three Perspectives On the (B)anality of AI Jonathan Cohn
4 Coding and Encoding Streamed Media: The Cultural Infrastructure of the Netflix Recommender System Fatima Gaw
5 Engaging Opacity: Spotify and the Poesis of Algorithmic Backends Tim Markham
Part II: Datafying, Serving, Distributing
6 The Social Mapping of Hyperscale Data Center Regions: Placemaking, Infrastructuring, Curating Vicki Mayer and Julia Velkova
7 Cross-sectoral Relations in VoD Markets: Frontend, Backend, and Deepend in India Vibodh Parthasarathi, Philippe Bouquillion, and Christine Ithurbide
8 Serving Machines and Heterotopias: Data Entry Work in Prisons and Refugee Camps in the US and Uganda Anne Kaun, Alexis Logsdon, Philipp Seuferling and Fredrik Stiernstedt
9 Mythical Media Backends: Human-Machine Communication's Cruel Promises Sander De Ridder
10 The Black Living Data Booklet Faithe Day
Part III: Subjecting, Humanizing, Repairing
11 Sonorous Surfaces, Biased Backends: The Gendered Voices of AI Assistants as Existential Media Amanda Lagerkvist, Jacek Smolicki, and Matilda Tudor
12 On Meaning and Exploitation: Everyday AI and Productivity Tracking in Denmark Stine Lomborg
13 The Backend Work of Data Subjects: Ordinary Challenges of Living with Data in India and the US Ranjit Singh
14 Repairing Algorithms, Rebuilding Data Paths: Digital Infrastructures, Public Service Media, and Material Solidarity in Europe Kaarina Nikunen
Afterword Rahul Mukherjee
Contributor Bios
Index