Media backends : digital infrastructures and sociotechnical relations / edited by Lisa Parks, Julia Velkova, and Sander De Ridder.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Parks, Lisa, editor.

Velkova, Julia, editor.

De Ridder, Sander, editor.

Series:

Geopolitics of information

The geopolitics of information

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Information society.

Information technology--Social aspects.

Information technology.

Digital media--Social aspects.

Digital media.

Mass media--Technological innovations.

Mass media.

Physical Description:

ix, 286 pages : illustrations (black and white) ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Urbana : University of Illinois Press, [2023]

Summary:

"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"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Atmospheric mediation : from smart dust to customizable governance / Mark Andrejevic and Zala Volcic

The other side of the smart phone: MEMS sensors and the tiny matters of mediation / Lisa Parks

EugenicTech : three perspectives on the (b)anality of AI / Jonathan Cohn

Coding and encoding streamed media : the cultural infrastructure of the Netflix recommender system / Fatima Gaw

Engaging opacity : spotify and the poiesis of algorithmic backends / Tim Markham

The social mapping of hyperscale data center regions : placemaking, infrastructuring, curating / Vicki Mayer and Julia Velkova

Cross-sectoral relations in VOD markets : frontend, backend, and deepend in India / Vibodh Parthasarathi, Philippe Bouquillion, and Christine Ithurbide

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

Mythical media backends : human-machine communication's cruel promises / Sander De Ridder

Black living data booklet / Faithe J. Day

Sonorous surfaces, biased backends : the gendered voices of ai assistants as existential media / Amanda Lagerkvist, Jacek Smolicki, and Matilda Tudor

On meaning and exploitation : everyday AI and productivity tracking in Denmark / Stine Lomborg

The backend work of data subjects : ordinary challenges of living with data in India and the US / Ranjit Singh

Repairing algorithms, rebuilding data paths : digital infrastructures, public service media, and material solidarity in Europe / Kaarina Nikunen

Afterword : theorizing across and between media backends / Rahul Mukherjee.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Media backends

ISBN:

9780252045349

0252045343

9780252087462

0252087461

OCLC:

1349085035