Examining how a platform’s design, algorithms, rules and business model shape what users can make and see.
Key thinkers: Tarleton Gillespie, José van Dijck, Nick Srnicek
The longer story
Platform analysis examines how digital platforms shape what's possible. Algorithms, affordances, interfaces, business models—all structure user behaviour in ways users may not see. What does the platform enable, encourage, discourage, prevent? Whose interests does its design serve? Platform studies attends to the layer between infrastructure and content—the technical systems that increasingly mediate creative production and reception. You can't understand digital culture without understanding platforms.