Platforms as Emergence

This chapter discusses the concept of the platform, which is an increasingly prominent way of understanding the functioning of media technologies. It traces the philosophical, disciplinary, and ideological implications of theoretical and critical works that characterize aspects of media technology, at varying scales, as platforms, in particular in the developing subdiscipline of “platform studies.” It challenges the ways that the concept of the platform naturalizes the functioning of media. It shows how the concept of the platform relates to the idea of ontological emergence. It argues that the platform would be more useful in describing epistemological emergence. This chapter argues that an understanding of the platform in terms of ontological emergence erects unnecessary divisions among media, media technologies, and users. It challenges the idea that platforms must necessarily be computational or even technological.