Week 9 Notes Political economy of social media

What is political economy?

-Political economy is a branch of social science that studies the relationship that forms between a nation's population and its government when public policy is enacted. 

-Political Economy draws on a range of economic thinking and ideas to apply different lenses – ie. class, gender, race etc – to analyse the economy and the big issues that impact it.

-Example = TikTok as it was haled by congress as they wanted to regulate them as they were owned by a Chinese company that was suspected of stealing its users info.

-Concerns about monopolistic practises, surveillance, data commodification and, the interplay between capital, labour, and technology. (Fuchs, C. (2015). Culture and economy in the age of social media. New York : Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.)


Platform capitalism:

-Platform capitalism refers to the activities of companies such as Google, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, Uber, Airbnb, Amazon and others to operate as platforms. In this business model both hardware and software are used as a foundation (platform) for other actors to conduct their own business.

-Market power is in the hands of the few.

-Facebook, Google, and Twitter.

-Monetise user data and attention.

Surveillance capitalism:

-Surveillance capitalism is a concept in political economics which denotes the widespread collection and commodification of personal data by corporations. This phenomenon is distinct from government surveillance, though the two can reinforce each other.

-Personal data and metadata are commodified, and - Social media shape human behaviour.

Challenges of Platform Capitalism:

-Surveillance, 

- Data extraction and ownership, 

- Filter bubbles and echo chambers, 

- The attention economy, and 

- Monopoly and market power.

Task:

TikTok

1.How Does the platform generate revenue?
-TikTok generates revenue through advertisement's and in app gift purchases.

2.What data does the platform collect from its users?
-TikTok tracks which videos users engage with and how long they do so. 

3.How does the platform use algorithms for content distribution?
-TikTok uses a personalised algorithm that distributes content to users based on their individual preferences.

4.What role does user generated content play on the platform?
-Most, if not all, of the content generated on TikTok is user generated, allowing anyone to use the app for content making.

5.Are there any recent controversies or ethical concerns related to the platform?
-There are quite a few:
-The harmful content that can be generated on the app has caused controversy, 
-The Privacy concerns due to it being owned by a Chinese company, and,
-How much content children are viewing and the effects that the short form content has on the attention span of young people



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