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Unit 3 - Coggle Diagram

- - - - Some platforms heavily rely on advertisers for their funding. All of their decisions are correlated with their corporate relationships to advertisers.
    - - User-generated content must meet advertisers' ethics requirements in order to be profitable.
  - - - This can sometimes lead to the exclusion of creators.
      - Neoliberal logic puts the blame on the creators if they lose income, even if it is due to platform changes. Content creators do not have any workers protection therefore the platform can change at any time.
    - - Creators are deemed entrepreneurs; "a revered subjectivity within neoliberal rationality" (Duffy, 2017)
  - - - Duffy (2017) explains that these programs exemplify the ideology of aspirational labour.
    - - Platforms have control of these programs and may pull them at any time.
  - - - Different users had different regulations and resources depending on how YouTube ranked their appeal.
        
        YouTube's algorithm favours content that is advertiser-friendly as well as popular. Although, the criteria for paid partnerships changes very frequently.
    - - Conservative, alt-right, politicians, queer, and left-leaning creators content was all being demonetized.
        
        The debate of unreasonable demonetization is continuous and appears every time YouTube changes their policies.
  - - - Platform affordances tend to exclude marginalized groups.
    - - Power differentials get overlooked for "one-size-fits-all" policies.
    - - Social inequalities are easily reproduced since white men make algorithimic decisions.
      - The algorithm and social media work
        
        Those who perceive their livelihoods as most affected by algorithmic decisions tend to a clear picture of how mechanical decision-making works—or at the very least encapsulates the feeling of being at the whim of an algorithm (Noble 2018).
        
        Safiya Noble (2018) suggests that the stories people tell, especially those told by people marginalized due to their gender and racial identity, are reflective of their lived experiences on platforms.
        
        Algorithms affect women, particularly women of colour twofold. Research shows that algorithms are imbued with discriminatory bias that reinforces racial, gender, and religious stereotypes (Noble 2018).
    - - On YouTube, the algorithm not only decides the kinds of content that are popular but the kinds of content that are produced as it punishes 'risky' content by making it invisible (Bishop 2018).
      - There is significant financial and emotional pressure to perform their self-brand in a particular way.
      - Sophie Bishop (2018) refers to the ways in which creators alter their content and selves in order to please the algorithm as algorithmic self-optimization.
  - - - In September 2022, Twitch rolled out an experimental feature called the “Boost Train.” The Boost Train was only available on certain channels, at Twitch’s discretion.
        
        Hype Trains starts when users unsubscribe from channels on Twitch. As streamers meet specific hype train criteria, they become eligible for a boost with the Boost Train.
        
        The boost train relies on a streamer’s ability to incite their audience into donating, subscribing and watching ads. Thus, the audience can support their favourite streamers by spending more money and time on the channel.
- - - - Folk theorization is "the cultivation of non-professional knowledge of how visibility on the platform works" (Moran, Grasso, and Koltai, 2022)
        
        Marginalized and underrepresented people to avoid content moderation systems that affect them when engaging in controversial topics
  - - - "Gaming" the system
        
        How users find workarounds for mechanical decision-making. Assuming there are set rules, and the users who circumvent them are engaging in a resistant practice
        
        Playing the visibility game
        
        Complicated relationship between the user, platform and algorithms, decentralizing the user as the bad actor and instead acknowledging the system's role in the relationship
        
        Platform is seen as the game master
        
        Rules of the game through the code and community guidelines
        
        Platforms are seen similar to law enforcement or the government
        
        "Punishing" people for not posting properly
        
        Ultimate goal is to win by gaining and demonstrating your influence to the algorithm
        
        Relational influence
        
        Focus some creators have creating a solid relationship with their followers and belief in the social aspect of social media.
        
        Belief of reward for cultivating authentic relationships with their followers
        
        The algorithm can detect inauthentic relationships and makes those users not a priority
        
        Simulated Influence
        
        Tactics allow influencers to reach higher degrees of visibility. Visibility as a metric trumps everything else
        
        Influencer pods help for more reciprocal engagement which is more difficult for algorithms to detect
        
        Business arrangement
        
        Follow/unfollow practice to maintain a desirable following-to-follower ratio
        
        Focus on being competitive and focus on quantified metrics
        
        Implies there is a blueprint to follow that will lead to good outcomes
    - - Content creators understand and rely on the algorithm because their livelihood at the whim of the algorithm
      - Algorithms strategically obscured or withheld from creators
      - Platforms have full access to information regarding the algorithm; they have power over creators and users
  - - - Pervasive social bias
        
        "Women are not only subject to the volatile governance of platforms (Caplan and Gillespie 2021) but also inherent bias of social media platforms overall built by primarily white, middle-class men in Silicon Valley
  - - - Prescribes desirable forms of participation on social media
      - Self-optimization
        
        Beauty content creators alter themselves to be positively impacted by the algorithm.
        
        Competing in a hierarchy of visibility which promotes hegemonic white femininity
        
        Hegemony proliferates everything on vlogs including: visuals, speech patterns, vocabulary, and closed-captioning