Platform power: shape media and society

Compiler: Liu Moxiao (Special Researcher, Special Researcher, Lecturer of the University of International News and Communication, Beijing University of Foreign Studies University)

Source: "Young Reporter", No. 11, 2022

In recent years, the development of technology has brought people into the "platform society", the platform's role has been prominent, and it has had an important impact on the news industry. For example, compared with traditional news agencies, more and more people rely on Internet platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Google to obtain news. Although most of the current news content is still produced by journalists of news agencies, with the rise of the platform, the public has found news, news communication methods, and the priority of news display.

In this context, Oxford University Press published a book "Power of Platforms: Shaping Media and Society" in 2022. Based on interviews with more than 50 employees from the United States, France, Germany, British news institutions and Internet technology companies, in -depth analysis of the "platform power" of technology companies, interactive relationships between platforms and media institutions, and how platforms reconstruct the platform to reconcile The digital media environment and the social impact of reform.

Three power of the Internet platform

As an infrastructure of a digital society, the Internet platform has the following three powers.

(1) Hard Power. That is, the platform has strong economic and political power that can affect decision -making. In terms of economy, large technology companies have a large amount of funds and invest in lobbying and public relations. They are also large advertisers themselves. In terms of politics, technology giants can directly contact voters and politicians to participate in the political process in depth. At this point, they are similar to large media institutions, and the latter has strong economic and political power.

(2) Soft Power. That is, the platform uses soft cultural forces to play a role through attracting and overwhelming instead of economic or political forces. For politicians and commercial elites, large technology companies may be attractive to them due to their reputation, status and representative technological progress, so that they voluntarily open accounts and publish information on the platform. For ordinary people, the platform has shaped their behavioral norms and lifestyles. Specifically, the platform's products and services have become part of people's daily life. The "PlatFormed Sociality" and "Culture of Connectivity" of large technology companies also redefine the search, social, and sharing Waiting for social practice. Although the disputes on platforms in recent years have continued to have been (such as the proliferation of false information, data collection of privacy violations, and the monopoly behavior of the platform), many people still admire large technology platforms. In the United States, compared to the media and Congress, the public has higher confidence in technology giants such as Google and Amazon, and the evaluation is more positive. Many Americans stated in the investigation that the products and services of large technology companies are greater than disadvantages for their individual and the entire society. Of course, soft power is not unique to the platform, and media institutions also have soft power. They have influenced the way people read, listen and watch news through their own products and services, and enjoy prestige and status among politicians and business elites.

(3) Platform power. Platform power is the unique power of Internet companies different from the media and other institutions. Regardless of how rich, prestigious or how powerful the media agency is, it is difficult for them to exercise platform power like technology companies. Researchers believe that it is through these platform power that technology companies have come into contact with huge user groups that were unimaginable before, making some media institutions into "slaves of algorithms", and even "defined" the digital media environment. This transformer platform power is closely related to the system and strategic interests of the technology company, and often plays a role in a highly inconsistent way.

Specifically, the platform power includes the following five main aspects:

The first is to formulate the power of rules. The platform owner has the dominance of formulating rules. If people want to be part of the social network, technology network, and market network provided by the platform, they must follow the rules system set by the platform.

The second is to establish and interrupt the power of connection. The platform is established and interrupted by revising "Community Standards" or technical protocols (such as search algorithms and ranking algorithms).

The third is the power to carry out large -scale automation operations. Platform technology makes billions of transactions and interactions every day and affect these transactions and interactions.

Fourth, the power of inconsistent information. The platform is like an opaque black box. Users, competitors, regulators and other external personnel can only observe the input and output of information on the platform according to limited data, and cannot grasp the platform's internal operating mechanism. Only Internet companies can access and obtain more detailed data to know the internal operation process of the platform.

Fifth, the power of cross -domain operations. For example, the data collected through photos sharing applications can be used for reference for targeted advertising on social platforms. As a commonly used connection intermediary and marketing tools, the platform is an important force that affects industrial development.

It should be noted that the performance of platform power is not enough to rely on the platform to unilaterally. The platform controls the tolerance connection method rather than the way of arranging his way of production. In other words, the platform exercises power through associations and interaction, benefiting from increasingly enhanced connections and more and more users and partners to join. Individual users, media users, and users of other institutions on the platform empower the development of the platform together, making the platform stronger. At the same time, these behaviors also obtained uneven empowerment when using the platform's products and services. This relational characteristics will not weaken the power of the platform, nor will it reduce the platform's attention to its own interests, but the ability to exercise power on the platform to largely depends on its ability to maintain relationships. In other words, the reason why some platforms encounter dilemma and failure is often because they fail to continue to attract users or maintain high participation of users. In addition, the platform will not always get what you want, nor can it use the platform power irresponsible and irresponsiblely. Political intervention and supervision at the national and international level will affect the operation of the platform and the exercise of platform power. The interactive relationship between the media and the platform

Studies have found that the relationship between the media and the platform is not equal. In the complex cooperation and game of media institutions and platforms, a phenomenon called "PlatFormed Public" appeared. Under the "platform publishing", the platform has dispelled the media power. Some news agencies have excessive path dependence on the platform, and they are almost impossible to control the distribution of news products and become the content supplier of the platform. The emergence of the phenomenon of "platform publishing" is mainly due to the limited influence of the media on the platform, and the platform itself is more subject to factors such as coding technology, business models and cultural customs.

Faced with the dominance of the platform, while most media institutions make full use of the platform and increase the opportunities of contact with the audience, they also strive to avoid excessive dependence on the platform and consciously avoid potential risks. The reason why media agencies do this is because they are keenly noticed that there are only part of the consistent interests between the media and the platform, and competition and conflict are not uncommon. Although there are no media agencies in terms of resources, no media agencies can be compared with science and technology giants, but in order to compete with the platform, the media will still participate in lobbying and strategic dissemination, affect decision makers and public opinion through the editorial, thereby defending their own interests.

In general, media agencies cannot avoid the rise and indirect impact of people's contact and use of platforms on the news industry. For example, although media agencies still mainly undertake news production production, the platform has increasingly controlled people's channels for getting news. In the Internet society, a strong and relatively independent institution like the media is getting closer to the status of ordinary users: they have the empowerment of a small number of giant technology companies, and they also rely more and more to rely on these large platform companies. This change is largely beyond the scope of the media's own control. Facing the power and great influence of the platform, many media institutions may feel scared and frustrated, but they have to continue to cooperate with the platform.

The impact of platform power on the media and society

At present, people are in a world of attention. Due to the development of digital technology, almost everyone can express themselves on the network platform, which has led to the rapid increase in the content of the supply side, and the demand side immediately spends the time on the media without corresponding growth. In this situation, the platform has become a new social power center. The technology giants not only control the attention of the society, but also attract people's attention by exercising the power of the platform, but also create a new type of information dissemination ecosystem that is different from traditional media. In view of the key role of public attention on the journalism industry, media institutions not only compete with platform power, but also forced to continuously adapt to this process.

In addition, the influence of the platform is not limited to the media. Other behaviors that want to attract the public, such as government agencies, private enterprises, and social groups, also need to face up to the platform's increasingly important role to deal with the relationship with the platform. Because the platform provides billions of people consumer products and services, it is an important force for shaping the current social relations.

All in all, platform power is fundamentally reshaping the media environment, which has influenced people's ways to obtain news, news production, political operations, and ways of contacting each other. The interactive relationship between the platform and the media further shows that while citizens, governments, enterprises, and media are empowered by the platform, they also rely more and more to rely on a few private technology companies that have for profit. This reflects an important feature of the current world: the rapid development of science and technology has given people more opportunities than ever, but these opportunities are also accompanied by risks, and many people cannot understand or control.

In view of the far -reaching impact of strong platform power on news, freedom of speech, and public life, large platform companies need more responsibilities for reflection with power, and make more efforts in copyright protection, privacy protection and control of false information dissemination. In addition, in the face of the expansion of platform power, governments in China, the United States, and Europe have adopted different forms and degrees of supervision measures in accordance with their national conditions, so that the technology platform no longer becomes a vacuum area for governance. It is foreseeable that in the next few years, the relationship between platform power and its media and society will continue to become an important topic for the academic and industry.

Reference format for this article:

Liu Moxiao. Platform power: shape media and society [J]. Young reporter, 2022 (11): 103-104.

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