"New Screen Ecology in India is an open access book that provides an in depth exploration of the digital transformation of the Indian media industry. Smith Mehta takes a deep dive into the world of social media platforms and their impact on contemporary film and television production, arguing that t
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hey have fundamentally shifted the creator dynamics of these industries. Through first-hand research with creators, platform and portal executives, and intermediaries such as talent agents and multi-channel networks, Mehta develops the concept of the new screen ecology. He reveals how the Indian screen industries are affected by the social relations between these agents, and how industrial practices are blurring the amateur-professional divide through creator and content interdependencies. Mehta goes beyond theoretical analysis by interrogating the production practices of 13 different platforms and portals, including Hotstar, Netflix, YouTube, and TVFPlay. He analyses the extent to which they benefit from the lack of censorship and restrictive industrial practices that are characteristic of traditional media structures." (Publisher description)
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"This publication considers the range of policy changes that have been tried or recommended by global regulators, assessing their impacts on press freedom and news media sustainability, with consideration for the risk of capture, and other potential tradeoffs of these interventions. It examines four
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categories of interventions: related to taxes and direct subsidies; copyright and licensing; competition and antitrust regulation; and transparency. Each piece discusses the driving concept behind each intervention, its advantages to publishers, how these benefits are distributed and how decisions are made regarding them, potential government involvement in each one, and their ability to address key underlying challenges related to news media sustainability. Our research also emphasizes the interrelationships between these policies and their broader effect on the platformatization of journalism. However, given that these interventions are in their early stages, or in some cases are still theoretical, a dearth of data makes it difficult to conclusively assess their impacts on media sustainability, media freedom and access to news. Where data asymmetries exist related to these questions, they are noted as areas for further research and potential regulatory attention." (Introduction, page 2-3)
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"An urgent finding of this first Fairwork Mexico report was impact platform work has on the physical and mental health of workers. Indeed, in megacities like Mexico City, and in urban environments marked by traffic congestion, pollution and fast-paced city life, workers’ bodies are being reduced t
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o an extension of the algorithm. Almost half of the workers we interviewed for this report reported that working for digital labour platforms affects them physically or mentally." (Editorial)
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"Efforts to govern algorithms have centerd the ‘black box problem,’or the opacity of algorithms resulting from corporate secrecy and technical complexity. In this article, I conceptualize a related and equally fundamental challenge for governance efforts: black box gaslighting. Black box gasligh
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ting captures how platforms may leverage perceptions of their epistemic authority on their algorithms to undermine users’ confidence in what they know about algorithms and destabilize credible criticism. I explicate the concept of black box gaslighting through a case study of the ‘shadowbanning’ dispute within the Instagram influencer community, drawing on interviews with influencers (n = 17) and online discourse materials (e.g., social media posts, blog posts, videos, etc.). I argue that black box gaslighting presents a formidable deterrent for those seeking accountability: an epistemic contest over the legitimacy of critiques in which platforms hold the upper hand. At the same time, I suggest we must be mindful of the partial nature of platforms’ claim to ‘the truth,’ as well as the value of user understandings of algorithms." (Abstract)
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"In 2023, Fairwork conducted the first year of research in Uganda among twelve selected digital platforms. The selected platforms are in the sectors of ride hailing and food delivery. The research and rating of platforms was done as per the five Fairwork principles." (Executive Summary)