Digital Platforms, Imperialism and Political Culture (Routledge New Developments in Communication and Society Research)

Product Description

In the networked twenty-first century, digital platforms have significantly influenced capital accumulation and digital culture. Platforms, such as social network sites (e.g. Facebook), search engines (e.g. Google), and smartphones (e.g. iPhone), are increasingly crucial because they function as major digital media intermediaries. Emerging companies in non-Western countries have created unique platforms, controlling their own national markets and competing with Western-based platform empires in the global markets. The reality though is that only a handful of Western countries, primarily the U.S., have dominated the global platform markets, resulting in capital accumulation in the hands of a few mega platform owners. This book contributes to the platform imperialism discourse by mapping out several core areas of platform imperialism, such as intellectual property, the global digital divide, and free labor, focusing on the role of the nation-state alongside transnational capital.

Review

“This book is a timely and important contribution to our understanding of imperialism in an age of digital media. Advancing his theory of platform imperialism, Jin manages to eloquently illustrate the contingency of new technologies on the global inequalities of the contemporary world order. This is a very welcome and sophisticated intervention in the field.” -Lina Dencik, Cardiff University, UK
“[T]his work would provide an astute reader with valuable inspirations for research on digital platforms and their relations with the issue of imperialism. This is worth adding that the last part of the book may be useful for marketing practitioners as well because the author convincingly shows how to increase the extent of work effectiveness by using social network sites (p. 134).” -Boris Stremlin, Stony Brook University, USA
“[T]his work would provide an astute reader with valuable inspirations for research on digital platforms and their relations with the issue of imperialism. This is worth adding that the last part of the book may be useful for marketing practitioners as well because the author convincingly shows how to increase the extent of work effectiveness by using social network sites.” -Joanna Rak, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Poland

About the Author

Dal Yong Jin is Associate Professor in the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University, Canada