Perspectives and questions on the advent of cultural and information platforms 29 Mots clé: géants du numérique; industries culturelles; industries informationnelles; informationnalisation (datification); intermé- diation; médiatisation; numérisation; plateforme. 1. Introduction Unquestionably, research and publications on the phenomenon of platforms are multiplying and it is difficult to draw up a reasoned and up-to-date assessment. This efferves- cence can be explained because, almost everywhere, researchers became aware of the importance of the phenomenon only late. However, this does not justify focusing attention only on the big platforms and, particularly, on those developed in different continents by the American Big Five and other groups such as Netflix or Disney, as well as on their Chinese competitors, such as TikTok, without linking the observations and conclusions to previous developments in mediatized communication, however important and decisive may be the current mutations observ- able from the second decade of this century. To avoid these gaps and to advance in the well-founded understanding of the current position of platforms, and espe- cially those mainly centered in the spheres of culture and information, I must, first, put this contribution in the continuity of my previous interventions in this Seminar. 2. Reminders and foreplay The approach I propose to mediatization – a concept with plural and therefore ambiguous meanings – can be de- scribed as socio-symbolic; it fundamentally differs from other approaches, particularly from the semio-anthropological approach (of the organizers of the Seminar) and, obviously, from the views of “common sense”. It insists on the fact that digital techniques are socio-technical devices that are objects of a social construction, which varies according to the countries and regions of the world (hence the importance to be given to social strategies and practices), in a temporality to be specified. And, in doing so, it helps to identify the modes of production of the
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