ARIN6902

Week 3: Platforms and Platformization

Dr Jennifer Hagedorn
jennifer.hagedorn@sydney.edu.au
This week
Due to the strike, I have prepared a slide-deck with materials and activities for you
to make your way through at in-lieu of our typical seminar this week.

Begin by watching this week’s lecture materials and read the required readings -
this will help with the activities.

At the end, there is a blog-writing activity that you are required to complete and
post to our discussion board on the unit Canvas page by the end of the week:
https://canvas.sydney.edu.au/courses/48167/discussion_topics/1021392

Note: the page is set to ‘hide’ all posts until you have posted your own blog post

2
Week 3 Readings
Essential reading

1. Flew, Terry (2021) Regulating Platforms. Cambridge: Polity, Ch. 2.

2. Gillespie, Tarleton (2017) ‘Governance by and through Platforms’, in J. Burgess, A.
Marwick & T. Poell (eds.), The SAGE Handbook of Social Media, London: SAGE, pp.
254-278.

Recommended reading

1. Nooren, P., van Gorp, N, van Eijk, N. & Fathaigh, R. O. (2018). ‘Should we regulate
digital platforms? A new framework for evaluating policy options’, Policy & Internet
19(3), pp. 264-301.
2. Van Dijck, J., Poell, T. & de Waal, M. (2018) The Platform Society. Oxford: Oxford
University Press, pp. 5-32 (‘The Platform Society as a Contested Concept’).
3
Recap: Platforms and Digital Media Convergence

Source: Australian Communications and Media Authority, 2011. 4

Recap: Platform Business Models and Multisided Markets

Sources: Linh Dao (2016), ‘Can you mix and match your way to a platform business model?’, Medium. 5
ACCC, 2019.
The Rise of Platforms
● What do you understand by the term 'platform'?
● What are the characteristics of platforms?
● Why are there different definitions of platforms, and distinctions between
different types of platforms?
● What platforms do you use? What do you think of them?
● Can you list the stakeholders associates to the platforms you use?

6
Platform App Economy
Look at the apps that are on your mobile phone. Choose 3 of these apps, and think
about:

● What is the product or service provided through this app?

● What individuals or companies benefit from my use of this app?
● How does the provider of this app make a profit from activities undertaken through
the app?
● Consider whether the app in question fits the criteria of a platform business?
● Reflecting on your responses to the questions on this slide and the previous slide,
create a diagram that illustrates your findings - what are the similarities and
differences between these apps in relation to the platform economy?

7
The Rise of Platforms
Do you think platform businesses always 'triumph' over other business (e.g. what
Parker et. al. called 'pipeline' businesses, in their book 'Platform Revolution'). Can
you think of examples in industries you are familiar with (e.g. media industries)
where platform business models are triumphing? What about examples of platform
businesses failing? What implications may this have for traditional businesses that
wish to compete?

8
Digital Platforms Inquiry
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has been conducting
public inquiries into privacy and data protection issues. See e.g. ACCC (2019)
Digital Platforms Inquiry: Final Report, Chapter 7 ('Digital Platforms and
Consumers').

Take some time to read through chapter 7 as it discusses issues arising in the
digital environment including the changing nature of 'personal' information, the
relationship of platforms to third-party data brokers, the adequacy of disclosure
provisions, and whether revised privacy laws should be economy-wide or platform
specific. Do these findings resonate with you?

9
Blog Post Activity

Reflecting on your learnings from this week’s materials and the activities you’ve just
completed, write 500 words in response to the following prompt. Find and use evidence
from a case study example to support your argument:
In what ways do privacy issues differ in a digital environment to other ways in which
companies and governments gather information about you? Is there a "privacy trade-off"
between getting things that you want, and disclosing information about yourself?
Tip: you could explore the https://digitalrightswatch.org.au/campaigns/ for Australian
examples.
Once completed, please post your blog post to our seminar discussion board on Canvas:
https://canvas.sydney.edu.au/courses/48167/discussion_topics/1021392

10
Next week: Privacy, Security and Digital Rights
Essential reading

1. Flew, Terry (2021) Regulating Platforms. Cambridge: Polity, pp. 72-79.

2. Suzor, Nicolas P. 2019. ‘Who Makes the Rules?’. In Lawless: the secret rules that govern our lives. Cambridge,
UK: Cambridge University Press. pp. 10-24.
3. Flew, Terry (2019) ‘Platforms on Trial’, Intermedia 46(2), pp. 18-23.

Recommended reading

1. Goggin, G., Vromen, A., Weatherall, K., Martin, F., Webb, A., Sunman, L., Bailo, F. (2017) Executive Summary
and Digital Rights: What are they and why do they matter now? In Digital Rights in Australia. Sydney: University
of Sydney. https://ses.library.usyd.edu.au/handle/2123/17587.
2. Karppinen, K. (2017) Human rights and the digital. In Routledge Companion to Media and Human Rights. In H.
Tumber & S. Waisbord (eds) Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge pp 95-103.
3. Marwick, A. & boyd, d. (2019) ‘Understanding Privacy at the Margins: Introduction’, International Journal of
Communication, pp. 1157-1165.

11