Acknowledgements

      This book has been the product of an Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Project, ‘The Platform Governance Project: Rethinking Internet Regulation as Media Policy’ (DP190100222). I would like to thank the ARC for their support, and acknowledge my co-investigators on that project: Fiona Martin, Nicolas Suzor, Tim Dwyer, Philip Napoli, and Josef Trappel. I would also like to acknowledge those who have offered research assistance during the project: Rosalie Gillett, Chunmeizi Su, Lucy Sunman, Yuan Jiang, Callum McWaters, and Katherine Kirkwood.

      This book has been written in two institutional environments. At the Queensland University of Technology I benefited from the input of John Banks, Axel Bruns, Jean Burgess, Stuart Cunningham, Uwe Dulleck, Joanne Gray, Donna Hancox, Stephen Harrington, Greg Hearn, Ozan Isler, Brendan Keogh, Amanda Lotz, Kylie Pappalardo, Michael Rosemann, Rebekah Russell-Bennett, Mark Ryan, Kevin Sanson, Mandy Thomas, and Aljosha Karim Schapals. In the Department of Media and Communications at the University of Sydney, which I joined as Professor of Digital Communications and Culture in 2021, I was able to present the findings of the book to the Digital Cultures Research Cluster, where the overall argument received valuable feedback. My thanks go to Olga Boichok, Benedetta Brevini, Marcus Carter, Chris Chesher, Mitchell Hobbs, Justine Humphry, Jonathon Hutchinson, Mark Johnson, Catharine Lumby, Alana Mann, Penny O’Donnell, and Margaret van Heekeren.

At Polity, I wish to thank Mary Savigar for her commitment throughout this project and Stephanie Homer for her support in the later stages of the book. I also benefited from the observations of two anonymous reviewers of the manuscript: this is a better book for their insights. I would also like to thank Manuela Tecusan for her meticulous copy-editing of the draft manuscript.

      Much of the book was written during the COVID-19 pandemic, which affected my ability to present ideas to other researchers. Yet I was lucky enough to benefit from numerous conversations. Among those whom I wish to thank for these important contributions to the book are Peng Hwa Ang, Sandra Braman, David Craig, Mark Deuze, Claes de Vreese, Lelia Green, Larry Gross, Jennifer Holt, Minna Horowitz, Petros Iosifidis, Amy Jordan, Ramon Lobato, Graham Murdock, Sora Park, Pawel Popiel, Philip Schlesinger, Julian Thomas, Rod Tiffen, Derek Wilding, and Dwayne Winseck.

      Aspects of the book’s main arguments have been presented to the Media Industries Conference in London in 2018, the International Association for Media and Communications (IAMCR) conference in Madrid in 2019, and two International Communications Association (ICA) conferences, in 2020 and 2021 (both virtual). I have also presented versions of the book’s arguments, in both in-person and virtual forums, to the Annenberg School of Journalism and Communications at the University of Southern California; the School of Communication & Information at Rutgers University; the Communications University of China; Shanghai Jiao Tong University; Xiamen University; Zhejiang University; Moscow State University; and the Swinburne University of Technology.

I would like to acknowledge the encouragement of my wife, Sandra Phillips, and her generosity and support throughout the writing process. As a proud Wakka Wakka and Gooreng Gooreng First Nations Australian woman who works in a predominantly white academy, and as the mother of three sons whom she brought up as a sole parent while pursuing a publishing, then academic career, Sandra has taught me that my privileged status in the global academy has institutional underpinnings that are easy for people like myself to take for granted. She has also reminded me of the importance of an orientation to justice in my research and scholarship.

      Finally, I dedicate this book to my daughter, Charlotte, and to the coming generation of students and researchers. Having lived their childhoods in the big shadow of digital platforms and social media, they come into the landscape traversed in this book with their eyes wide open. May they be the agents of transformative change.