The Power of Platforms

The book uncovers provides a needed starting point from which conditions of non-Western media environments can be investigated, compared, and evaluated. * B. G. Chang, CHOICE *
Whatever your view of whether governments and societies should break up digital platforms, you'll agree that platform power is real. Nielsen and Ganter's book provides the most clear-sighted account yet of how platform power is reconfiguring news publishing. They offer a historically detailed, conceptually precise, and institutionally sensitive account of the deeply asymmetrical relations in which both platforms and publishers are today locked. Essential reading for those who still care about information's role in politics. * Nick Couldry, London School of Economics and Political Science *
Even for those of us who study media and tech for a living, it's increasingly difficult to comprehend the last ten years of seismic disruption to the way the public discovers, consumes, and shares information. The Power of Platforms is an important book that brings welcome coherence and insight into the symbiotic and increasingly asymmetrical relationship between news publisher and platforms, how it has upended the media environment, and is transforming societies. * Vivian Schiller, The Aspen Institute *
The power of corporate platforms on the distribution and consumption of news is unprecedented. Nielsen and Ganter's book is an exceptional, thought-provoking analysis of the intricate relationships between platform mechanisms and news publishing. This is truly a must-read for any student of media who wants to understand the controlling role of digital intermediaries. No academic of journalism and media studies can afford to miss out on this valuable treatise of how the business of news production has transformed in recent years and what is at stake for the public sphere. * José van Dijck, Utrecht University, and author of The Culture of Connectivity and The Platform Society *
The Power of Platforms: Shaping Media and Society provides a critical look at how large technology companies like Google, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram came to dominate media environments, as well as the impact of platforms on journalism.... the authors elaborate extensively on how behavioral targeting by IT companies can be used to shift readers away from newspapers and toward digital media. The findings not only help researchers address key issues arising from the scale and speed of digitized and platformed news consumption, but the book will also be a valuable guide for digital citizens when making daily information choices. * International Journal of Communication *
I would say that the work under study has a very heterogeneous background, with potential interest for public decision-makers in the context of public regulation policies, but also for publishers and journalists in managing their relationship with these conglomerates. * Joao Carlos Sousa, Metascience *