Media Backends

Part I: Sensing, Automating, Mediating

1 Atmospheric Mediation: From Smart Dust to Customizable Governance Mark Andrejevic, and Zala Volcic

2 The Other Side of the Smart Phone: MEMS Sensors and the Tiny Matter of Mediation Lisa Parks

3 EugenicTech: Three Perspectives On the (B)anality of AI Jonathan Cohn

4 Coding and Encoding Streamed Media: The Cultural Infrastructure of the Netflix Recommender System Fatima Gaw

5 Engaging Opacity: Spotify and the Poesis of Algorithmic Backends Tim Markham

Part II: Datafying, Serving, Distributing

6 The Social Mapping of Hyperscale Data Center Regions: Placemaking, Infrastructuring, Curating Vicki Mayer and Julia Velkova

7 Cross-sectoral Relations in VoD Markets: Frontend, Backend, and Deepend in India Vibodh Parthasarathi, Philippe Bouquillion, and Christine Ithurbide

8 Serving Machines and Heterotopias: Data Entry Work in Prisons and Refugee Camps in the US and Uganda Anne Kaun, Alexis Logsdon, Philipp Seuferling and Fredrik Stiernstedt

9 Mythical Media Backends: Human-Machine Communication’s Cruel Promises Sander De Ridder

10 The Black Living Data Booklet Faithe Day

Part III: Subjecting, Humanizing, Repairing

11 Sonorous Surfaces, Biased Backends: The Gendered Voices of AI Assistants as Existential Media Amanda Lagerkvist, Jacek Smolicki, and Matilda Tudor

12 On Meaning and Exploitation: Everyday AI and Productivity Tracking in Denmark Stine Lomborg

13 The Backend Work of Data Subjects: Ordinary Challenges of Living with Data in India and the US Ranjit Singh

14 Repairing Algorithms, Rebuilding Data Paths: Digital Infrastructures, Public Service Media, and Material Solidarity in Europe Kaarina Nikunen

Afterword Rahul Mukherjee

Contributor Bios

Index