Platforms and Society

3 credits

This course may be used to satisfy one of four electives required for the Communication major. Platforms rose to the center of social, economic, political, and cultural activities, functioning as fundamental digital infrastructures that shape everyday interactions on a global scale. This course investigates platforms from a critical perspective, introducing key theories that explain the historical conditions that gave rise to them, the governance of and by platforms, the platform economy and their logic of capitalist accumulation, platform power and politics, and the role platforms play in cultural production. The course then turns to the operations and implications of major platforms, such as Amazon, Google, Meta, Netflix, and AirBnB, while also examining more locally rooted counterparts in Europe, Asia, and other regions.