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Platforms refer to an emerging type of firm which positions itself as a digital intermediary that coordinates interactions between different user groups and relies upon data extraction to gain economic and political power. Platforms have emerged as key players in reconfiguring media and cultural production, transforming the labor process, and contesting regulatory frameworks and institutions. A growing body of literature—including a special issue about the platformization of Chinese society published by the Chinese Journal of Communication (2019)—has problematized the uniformity of platformization across the globe by attending to differences in affordances, governance approaches, and political economies of platforms. Accordingly, the ways that platforms evolve, govern different user groups, shape the labor process, and challenge political governance are deeply embedded in a specific institutional context. |
