ABSTRACT
In China as in other countries the terms under which public communication is taking place is rapidly changing. With the impact of social media and other online media, the press is shifting to become the ‘platform press’. Subscription video and audio on-demand services and advertiser-supported online video and audio services are recalibrating television and radio services into portal services. The smartphone is seamlessly connecting users and their interpersonal networks to media content, including content specifically generated for mobile. In this chapter we argue that what is being reshaped in China as in other countries is not only access to media product but the very basic infrastructures for modern-social, political, economic and cultural-life as media and communication services are being more tightly woven into broader economic, social, governmental and political worlds. At the centre of these global transformations are mostly American and Chinese technology companies whose principal products are platforms and the processes of platformization they drive.
