Media Backends: Digital Infrastructures and Sociotechnical Relations

Exploring how we make, distribute, and consume today’s media systemsMedia backends--the electronics, labor, and operations behind our screens--significantly influence our understanding of the sociotechnical relations, economies, and operations of media. Lisa Parks, Julia Velkova, and Sander De Ridder assemble essays that delve into the evolving politics of the media infrastructural landscape. Throughout, the contributors draw on feminist, queer, and intersectional criticism to engage with infrastructural and industrial issues. This focus reflects a concern about the systemic inequalities that emerge when tech companies and designers fail to address workplace discrimination and algorithmic violence and exclusions. Moving from smart phones to smart dust, the essayists examine topics like artificial intelligence, human-machine communication, and links between digital infrastructures and public service media alongside investigations into the algorithmic backends at Netflix and Spotify, Google’s hyperscale data centers, and video-on-demand services in India. A fascinating foray into an expanding landscape of media studies, Media Backends illuminates the behind-the-screen processes influencing our digital lives.  Contributors: Mark Andrejevic, Philippe Bouquillion, Jonathan Cohn, Faithe J. Day, Sander De Ridder, Fatima Gaw, Christine Ithurbide, Anne Kaun, Amanda Lagerkvist, Alexis Logsdon, Stine Lomborg, Tim Markham, Vicki Mayer, Rahul Mukherjee, Kaarina Nikunen, Lisa Parks, Vibodh Parthasarathi, Philipp Seuferling, Ranjit Singh, Jacek Smolicki, Fredrik Stiernstedt, Matilda Tudor, Julia Velkova, and Zala Volcic

Table of Contents:
Introduction Lisa Parks, Julia Velkova, and Sander De Ridder Part I: Sensing, Automating, Mediating 1 Atmospheric Mediation: From Smart Dust to Customizable Governance Mark Andrejevic, and Zala Volcic 2 The Other Side of the Smart Phone: MEMS Sensors and the Tiny Matter of Mediation Lisa Parks 3 EugenicTech: Three Perspectives On the (B)anality of AI Jonathan Cohn 4 Coding and Encoding Streamed Media: The Cultural Infrastructure of the Netflix Recommender System Fatima Gaw 5 Engaging Opacity: Spotify and the Poesis of Algorithmic Backends Tim Markham Part II: Datafying, Serving, Distributing 6 The Social Mapping of Hyperscale Data Center Regions: Placemaking, Infrastructuring, Curating Vicki Mayer and Julia Velkova 7 Cross-sectoral Relations in VoD Markets: Frontend, Backend, and Deepend in India Vibodh Parthasarathi, Philippe Bouquillion, and Christine Ithurbide 8 Serving Machines and Heterotopias: Data Entry Work in Prisons and Refugee Camps in the US and Uganda Anne Kaun, Alexis Logsdon, Philipp Seuferling and Fredrik Stiernstedt 9 Mythical Media Backends: Human-Machine Communication’s Cruel Promises Sander De Ridder 10 The Black Living Data Booklet Faithe Day Part III: Subjecting, Humanizing, Repairing 11 Sonorous Surfaces, Biased Backends: The Gendered Voices of AI Assistants as Existential Media Amanda Lagerkvist, Jacek Smolicki, and Matilda Tudor 12 On Meaning and Exploitation: Everyday AI and Productivity Tracking in Denmark Stine Lomborg 13 The Backend Work of Data Subjects: Ordinary Challenges of Living with Data in India and the US Ranjit Singh 14 Repairing Algorithms, Rebuilding Data Paths: Digital Infrastructures, Public Service Media, and Material Solidarity in Europe Kaarina Nikunen Afterword Rahul Mukherjee Contributor Bios Index