Prof. Hendricks shares how social media are like investment banks in the attention economy, how information is packaged and sold, and what Big Tech’s growing influence on critical infrastructure means for politics and society.
Dr. Jean-Christophe Plantin, Associate Professor in Media and Communications at the London School of Economics, explains the concept of media infrastructures.
We discuss Dr. Plantin’s research on digital platforms, infrastructures, and how tech giants like Facebook and Google increasingly blend those two concepts. We also discuss the infrastructure of WeChat, and get into Dr. Plantin’s ongoing work into the concept of programmable infrastructures – which explores how the hardware of the tech industry is becoming increasingly disagreggated and modular.
Check out Dr. Plantin’s recent talk at Sciences Po for more details on programmable infrastructures.