Infrastructure studies meet platform studies in the age of Google and Facebook

TLDR

Infrastructure studies and platform studies are two emerging theoretical approaches that examine digital media, where platform studies focuses on how communication is enabled and constrained by digital systems, and platform-based services increasingly acquire infrastructure-like characteristics, with infrastructures being reorganized around platform logic. Despite their separate origins and different features, we demonstrate in this article how the cross‑articulation of these two perspectives improves our understanding of current digital media. We use case studies of the Open Web, Facebook, and Google to demonstrate that infrastructure studies provides a valuable approach to the evolution of shared, widely accessible systems and services of the type often provided or regulated by governments in the public interest. We conclude by underlining the potential of this combined framework for future case studies.

Abstract

Two theoretical approaches have recently emerged to characterize new digital objects of study in the media landscape: infrastructure studies and platform studies. Despite their separate origins and different features, we demonstrate in this article how the cross-articulation of these two perspectives improves our understanding of current digital media. We use case studies of the Open Web, Facebook, and Google to demonstrate that infrastructure studies provides a valuable approach to the evolution of shared, widely accessible systems and services of the type often provided or regulated by governments in the public interest. On the other hand, platform studies captures how communication and expression are both enabled and constrained by new digital systems and new media. In these environments, platform-based services acquire characteristics of infrastructure, while both new and existing infrastructures are built or reorganized on the logic of platforms. We conclude by underlining the potential of this combined framework for future case studies.