Thomas Poell | University of Amsterdam (original) (raw)

Papers by Thomas Poell

This article explores how the political economy of the cultural industries changes through platfo... more This article explores how the political economy of the cultural industries changes through platformization: the penetration of economic and infrastructural extensions of online platforms into the web, affecting the production, distribution, and circulation of cultural content. It pursues this investigation in critical dialogue with current research in business studies, political economy, and software studies. Focusing on the production of news and games, the analysis shows that in economic terms platformization entails the replacement of two-sided market structures with complex multisided platform configurations, dominated by big platform corporations. Cultural content producers have to continuously grapple with seemingly serendipitous changes in platform governance, ranging from content curation to pricing strategies. Simultaneously, these producers are enticed by new platform services and infrastructural changes. In the process, cultural commodities become fundamentally “contingent,” that is increasingly modular in design and continuously reworked and repackaged, informed by datafied user feedback.

Online platforms, from Facebook to Twitter, and from Coursera to Uber, have become deeply involve... more Online platforms, from Facebook to Twitter, and from Coursera to Uber, have become deeply involved in a wide range of public activities, including journalism, civic engagement, education, and transport. As such, they have started to play a vital role in the realization of important public values and policy objectives associated with these activities. Based on insights from theories about risk sharing and the problem of many hands, this article develops a conceptual framework for the governance of the public role of platforms, and elaborates on the concept of cooperative responsibility for the realization of critical public policy objectives in Europe. It argues that the realization of public values in platform-based public activities cannot be adequately achieved by allocating responsibility to one central actor (as is currently common practice), but should be the result of dynamic interaction between platforms, users, and public institutions.

The Sage Handbook of Social Media, 2018

This article investigates the claims and complexities involved in the platform-based economics of... more This article investigates the claims and complexities involved in the platform-based economics of health and fitness apps. We examine a double-edged logic inscribed in these platforms, promising to offer personal solutions to medical problems while also contributing to the public good. On the one hand, online platforms serve as personalized data-driven services to their customers. On the other hand, they allegedly serve public interests, such as medical research or health education. In doing so, many apps employ a diffuse discourse, hinging on terms like ''sharing,'' ''open,'' and ''reuse'' when they talk about data extraction and distribution. The analytical approach we adopt in this article is situated at the nexus of science and technology studies, political economy, and the sociology of health and illness. The analysis concentrates on two aspects: datafication (the use and reuse of data) and commodification (a platform's deployment of governance and business models). We apply these analytical categories to three specific platforms: 23andMe, PatientsLikeMe, and Parkinson mPower. The last section will connect these individual examples to the wider implications of health apps' data flows, governance policies, and business models. Regulatory bodies commonly focus on the (medical) safety and security of apps, but pay scarce attention to health apps' techno-economic governance. Who owns user-generated health data and who gets to benefit? We argue that it is important to reflect on the societal implications of health data markets. Governments have the duty to provide conceptual clarity in the grand narrative of transforming health care and health research.

While the rise of social media has made activists much less dependent on television and mainstrea... more While the rise of social media has made activists much less dependent on television and mainstream newspapers, this certainly does not mean that activists have more control over the media environments in which they operate. Media power has neither been transferred to the public, nor to activists for that matter; instead, power has partly shifted to the technological mechanisms and algorithmic selections operated by large social media corporations (Facebook, Twitter, Google). Through such technological shaping, social media greatly enhance the news-oriented character of activist communication, shifting the focus away from protest issues towards the spectacular, newsworthy, and ‘conflictual’ aspects of protest. Simultaneously, social platforms not only allow users to engage in personal networks but also steer them towards such connections. While personal networks and viral processes of content dissemination can generate strong sentiments of togetherness, they are antithetical to community formation.

This introduction to the special section on the construction of public space in social media acti... more This introduction to the special section on the construction of public space in social media activism discusses (1) the types of social media practices involved in the construction of publicness during contemporary episodes of popular contention, (2) the particular political institutional contexts in which these practices are articulated, and (3) the technocommercial architectures through which they take shape. Building on the five articles in this section, we argue that public space is not readily available for today’s citizens and activists, but is conquered and constructed through processes of emotional connectivity.

This article challenges the idea that social media protest mobilization and communication are pri... more This article challenges the idea that social media protest
mobilization and communication are primarily propelled by the
self-motivated sharing of ideas, plans, images, and resources. It
shows that leadership plays a vital role in steering popular
contention on key social platforms. This argument is developed
through a detailed case study on the interaction between the
administrators and users of the Kullena Khaled Said Facebook
page, the most popular online platform during the Egyptian
revolution of early 2011. The analysis specifically focuses on the
period from 1 January until 15 February 2011. It draws from 1629 admin posts and 1,465,696 user comments, extracted via a customized version of Netvizz. For each day during this period, the three most engaged with posts, as well as the 10 most engaged with comments, have been translated and coded, making it possible to systematically examine how the
administrators tried to shape the communication on the page,
and how users responded to these efforts. This analysis is pursued from a sociotechnical perspective. It traces how the exchanges on the page are simultaneously shaped by the admins’ marketing strategies and the technological architecture of the Facebook page. On the basis of this exploration, we argue that the page administrators should be understood as ‘connective leaders’. Rather than directing protest activity through formal organizations and collective identity frames, as social movement leaders have traditionally done, connective leaders invite and steer user participation by employing sophisticated marketing strategies to connect users in online communication streams and networks.

This paper discusses the empirical, Application Programming Interface (API)-based analysis of ver... more This paper discusses the empirical, Application Programming Interface (API)-based analysis of very large Facebook Pages.
Looking in detail at the technical characteristics, conventions, and peculiarities of Facebook’s architecture and data
interface, we argue that such technical fieldwork is essential to data-driven research, both as a crucial form of data
critique and as a way to identify analytical opportunities. Using the ‘‘We are all Khaled Said’’ Facebook Page, which
hosted the activities of nearly 1.9 million users during the Egyptian Revolution and beyond, as empirical example, we
show how Facebook’s API raises important questions about data detail, completeness, consistency over time, and
architectural complexity. We then outline an exploratory approach and a number of analytical techniques that take
the API and its idiosyncrasies as a starting point for the concrete investigation of a large dataset. Our goal is to close the
gap between Big Data research and research about Big Data by showing that the critical investigation of technicity is
essential for empirical research and that attention to the particularities of empirical work can provide a deeper understanding of the various issues Big Data research is entangled with.

This introduction to the special issue on data and agency argues that datafication should not onl... more This introduction to the special issue on data and agency argues that datafication should not only be understood as the process of collecting and analysing data about internet users, but also as feeding such data back to users, enabling them to orient themselves in the world. It is important that debates about data power recognise that data is also generated, collected and analysed by alternative actors, enhancing rather than undermining the agency of the public. Developing this argument, we first make clear why and how the question of agency should be central to our engagement with data. Subsequently, we discuss how this question has been operationalized in the five contributions to this special issue, which empirically open up the study of alternative forms of datafication. Building on these contributions, we conclude that as data acquire new power, it is vital to explore the space for citizen agency in relation to data structures and to examine the practices of data work, as well as the people involved in these practices.

This article challenges the idea that social media protest mobilization and communication are pri... more This article challenges the idea that social media protest mobilization and communication are primarily propelled by the self-motivated sharing of ideas, plans, images, and resources. It shows that leadership plays a vital role in steering popular contention on key social platforms. This argument is developed through a detailed case study on the interaction between the administrators and users of the Kullena Khaled Said Facebook page, the most popular online platform during the Egyptian revolution of early 2011. The analysis specifically focuses on the period from 1 January until 15 February 2011. It draws from 1629 admin posts and 1,465,696 user comments, extracted via a customized version of Netvizz. For each day during this period, the three most engaged with posts, as well as the 10 most engaged with comments, have been translated and coded, making it possible to systematically examine how the administrators tried to shape the communication on the page, and how users responded to these efforts. This analysis is pursued from a sociotechnical perspective. It traces how the exchanges on the page are simultaneously shaped by the admins’ marketing strategies and the technological architecture of the Facebook page. On the basis of this exploration, we argue that the page administrators should be understood as ‘connective leaders’. Rather than directing protest activity through formal organizations and collective identity frames, as social movement leaders have traditionally done, connective leaders invite and steer user participation by employing sophisticated marketing strategies to connect users in online communication streams and networks.

NECSUS - European Journal of Media Studies

This introduction to the special issue on social media and television audience engagement sketche... more This introduction to the special issue on social media and television audience engagement sketches the key dimensions that affect how audiences are transformed through the development of social platforms. Building on the five contributions to the special issue, we identify three dimensions that deserve further attention: (1) the character of national media cultures, (2) whether social platforms are employed by public or commercial broadcasters, and (3) the specific techno-commercial strategies of television producers and social media companies. By exploring these three dimensions, the article presents a basic analytical model to systematically compare and contextualize empirical findings on the relationship between social media and audience engagement.

Since 2012, platforms for massive open online courses (MOOCs), such as Coursera, Udacity, and edX... more Since 2012, platforms for massive open online courses (MOOCs), such as Coursera, Udacity, and edX, have had a considerable impact on established forms of higher education, both online and off-line, private and public. What are the technocommercial and sociocultural dynamics underlying the organization of MOOCs? This article first describes how MOOCs are built on the same mechanisms underpinning the overall ecosystem of connective platforms. Second, it inventories how European public universities have responded to MOOCs. Finally, the article theorizes how the surge of global online MOOCs impacts the definition of higher education as a public good. To sustain public systems of college education, governments and university administrators will need to address the networked infrastructure that undergirds national and global alliances.

Social Media, Politics and the State: Protests, Revolutions, Riots, Crime and Policing in an Age of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube

This chapter interrogates how activist social media communication in authoritarian contexts is sh... more This chapter interrogates how activist social media communication in authoritarian contexts is shaped through the mutual articulation of social media user practices, business models, and technological architectures, as well as through the controlling efforts of states. It specifically focuses on social media protest activity and contention in China, Tunisia, and Iran, authoritarian states which have made a large effort to control online activity. The analysis shows that instead of blocking or repressing social media activism, authoritarian states rather shape online contention. Online censorship and offline repression push users to adapt their communication by creatively misspelling words, using synonyms, symbolic language and parody, and through self-censorship. Simultaneously by using commercial platforms activists effectively lose control over their data, and over the spaces through which they communicate. This is particularly problematic in authoritarian settings, in which activist communication depends on specific technological arrangements and on the ability to keep sensitive data out of the hands of the authorities. Finally, while activist social media communication is shaped by Internet censorship and encapsulated by commercial social platforms, activists are constantly exploring new ways to evade censorship, but also to regain control over their collective data. They do so through technical means, especially filtering circumvention tools, but also by posting and translating information across different social media services, and by setting up their own platforms to curate their data.

Over the past decade, social media platforms have penetrated deeply into the mechanicsof everyday... more Over the past decade, social media platforms have penetrated deeply into the mechanicsof everyday life, affecting people's informal interactions, as well as institutional structures and professional routines. Far from being neutral platforms for everyone, social media have changed the conditions and rules of social interaction. In this article, we examine the intricate dynamic between social media platforms, mass media, users, and social institutions by calling attention to social media logic—the norms, strategies, mechanisms, and economies—underpinning its dynamics. This logic will be considered in light of what has been identified as mass media logic , which has helped spread the media's powerful discourse outside its institutional boundaries. Theorizing social media logic, we identify four grounding principles—programmability, popularity, connectivity, and datafication—and argue that these principles become increasingly entangled with mass media logic. The logic of social media, rooted in these grounding principles and strategies, is gradually invading all areas of public life. Besides print news and broadcasting, it also affects law and order, social activism, politics, and so forth. Therefore, its sustaining logic and widespread dissemination deserve to be scrutinized in detail in order to better understand its impact in various domains. Concentrating on the tactics and strategies at work in social media logic, we reassess the constellation of power relationships in which social practices unfold, raising questions such as: How does social media logic modify or enhance existing mass media logic? And how is this new media logic exported beyond the boundaries of (social or mass) media proper? The underlying principles, tactics, and strategies may be relatively simple to identify, but it is much harder to map the complex connections between platforms that distribute this logic: users that employ them, technologies that drive them, economic structures that scaffold them, and institutional bodies that incorporate them.

The Sage Handbook of Social Media, 2018

This article challenges the idea that social media protest mobilization and communication are pri... more This article challenges the idea that social media protest mobilization and communication are primarily propelled by the self-motivated sharing of ideas, plans, images, and resources. It shows that leadership plays a vital role in steering popular contention on key social platforms. This argument is developed through a detailed case study on the interaction between the administrators and users of the Kullena Khaled Said Facebook page, the most popular online platform during the Egyptian revolution of early 2011. The analysis specifically focuses on the period from 1 January until 15 February 2011. It draws from 1629 admin posts and 1,465,696 user comments, extracted via a customized version of Netvizz. For each day during this period, the three most engaged with posts, as well as the 10 most engaged with comments, have been translated and coded, making it possible to systematically examine how the administrators tried to shape the communication on the page, and how users responded to these efforts. This analysis is pursued from a sociotechnical perspective. It traces how the exchanges on the page are simultaneously shaped by the admins’ marketing strategies and the technological architecture of the Facebook page. On the basis of this exploration, we argue that the page administrators should be understood as ‘connective leaders’. Rather than directing protest activity through formal organizations and collective identity frames, as social movement leaders have traditionally done, connective leaders invite and steer user participation by employing sophisticated marketing strategies to connect users in online communication streams and networks.

NECSUS - European Journal of Media Studies

Social Media, Politics and the State: Protests, Revolutions, Riots, Crime and Policing in an Age of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube

Society Media + Society, 2019

The rise of contemporary platforms—from GAFAM in the West to the “three kingdoms” of the Chinese ... more The rise of contemporary platforms—from GAFAM in the West to the “three kingdoms” of the Chinese Internet—is
reconfiguring the production, distribution, and monetization of cultural content in staggering and complex ways. Given the
nature and extent of these transformations, how can we systematically examine the platformization of cultural production?
In this introduction, we propose that a comprehensive understanding of this process is as much institutional (markets,
governance, and infrastructures), as it is rooted in everyday cultural practices. It is in this vein that we present fourteen
original articles that reveal how platformization involves key shifts in practices of labor, creativity, and citizenship. Diverse in
their methodological approaches and topical foci, these contributions allow us to see how platformization is unfolding across
cultural, geographic, and sectoral-industrial contexts. Despite their breadth and scope, these articles can be mapped along
four thematic clusters: continuity and change; diversity and creativity; labor in an age of algorithmic systems; and power,
autonomy, and citizenship.