work

Platform Governance

Definition: Social ordering carried out by social media platforms through automated means, blending human and machinic agency.

Example: Facebook's cross-check program, which furnished different sets of content moderation rules to high-profile users.

Significance in Media: Platform governance decisions impact a creator's visibility, affecting their career success, ability to monetize content, and influence.

Platformization

Definition: The process by which large digital platforms increasingly act as intermediaries between users, facilitating economic and social interactions in the public sphere.

Example: The rise of platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube as the dominant model for content creation and distribution.

Significance in Media: Platformization has led to the rise of the social media economy, where success is tied to visibility and discoverability. It has disrupted legacy media and led to a reliance on social media for content circulation.

Content Moderation

Definition: Proactively or reactively filtering, rejecting, removing, compiling, banning, demonetizing, and demoting content and accounts.

Example: YouTube's content ID system, which automatically flags videos for copyright infringement.

Significance in Media: Content moderation shapes the content landscape of platforms and impacts the visibility of creators. It raises questions about freedom of expression and the power of platforms to control speech.

Media Regulation (and 6 Types)

Definition: The whole process of control or guidance, by established rules and procedures, applied by governments and other political and administrative authorities to all kinds of [expressive] activities.

Six Types:

Structure: Ownership and organization of media organizations (e.g., rules to prevent monopolies).

Infrastructure: Physical elements of media operation (e.g., spectrum allocation, broadcast standards).

Distribution: Means of content delivery (e.g., regulations on cable providers).

Access: Who can access and operate media resources (e.g., licensing for broadcasters).

Conduct: How communicators behave (e.g., copyright law, defamation law).

Content: Restrictions on content based on harm principle (e.g., laws against child pornography).

Network Society

Definition: Contemporary lives linked through digital technology and the circulation of media content as data.

Example: The increasing reliance on social media for news, entertainment, and communication.

Significance in Media: The network society has led to the rise of platforms, the social media economy, and new regimes of visibility.

Regimes of Visibility

Definition: Systems of power, representations, and social control that synchronize attention and reward or punish what is considered appropriate to show and see.

Example: TikTok's algorithm determines what content is promoted based on values (what is appropriate)

Significance in Media: Regimes of visibility shape what content is seen and who gains influence in the social media landscape.

Algorithmic Governance

Definition: Use of algorithms to moderate content, boosting some content while suppressing or removing others.

Example: TikTok's algorithm, which promotes trending content and can shadowban creators or content deemed inappropriate.

Significance in Media: Algorithmic governance impacts content visibility and can lead to issues of transparency, justice, and depoliticization in content moderation.

Trends in IP Law

1. prioritization - taking shared content and making it personal, removing it from the public domain (ex: Barbie Pink)

2. owners rights - viewing copyright as theft, expanding rights over distribution of work

3. technology - Advances in communication technology make it simpler to disseminate and share ideas

4. globalization - IP is a trade issue across jurisdictions

Complementor

Definition: Entities that enhance the value of a platform by creating content or services that users find desirable.

Example: Creators on YouTube, who create content that attracts viewers and drives advertising revenue for the platform.

Significance in Media: Complementors are essential for the success of platforms and contribute to the cultural production within the platform ecosystem.

Curation

Definition: The process of ordering, structuring, and presenting content to users.

Example: Algorithmic recommendations on platforms like Netflix and Spotify, which curate content based on user preferences.

Significance in Media: Curation shapes user experience and can influence content discovery and consumption patterns.

Depoliticization

Definition: The process of removing political considerations from an issue, often by framing it as a technical or neutral matter.

Example: Presenting algorithmic content moderation as a purely technical issue, obscuring the power dynamics and potential biases involved.

Significance in Media: Depoliticization can mask the political implications of platform governance and content moderation decisions.

Hard Moderation

Definition: Content moderation that involves strict enforcement of rules, often through automated means, leading to the removal or suppression of content that violates guidelines.

Example: Automatic removal of videos on YouTube that contain copyrighted music.

Significance in Media: Hard moderation can limit the visibility of certain content and impact creators who may unintentionally violate platform guidelines.

Soft Moderation

Definition: Content moderation that relies on community feedback, user flagging, and less strict enforcement, allowing for a wider range of content to remain visible.

Example: Down-ranking comments on Facebook that are flagged as offensive, but not necessarily removing them.

Significance in Media: Soft moderation allows for more diverse content but can be less effective in addressing harmful content or protecting vulnerable users.

Moral Regulation

Definition: A form of politics or practice whereby some agents problematize the conduct, values, or culture of others on moral grounds and seek to impose regulation on them.

Example: Content moderation policies that target hate speech, harassment, and other content deemed morally objectionable.

Significance in Media: Moral regulation shapes the norms and values of online communities, impacting acceptable behaviour and the types of content allowed.

Remember that the examples given are just a starting point, and you can find many more examples of each concept within the sources provided. These concepts are all interconnected and contribute to understanding the complex landscape of digital media, platform governance, and the role of creators in the online world.