Platform Governance in Digital Journalism

Digital platforms have become pivotal intermediaries in the contemporary news ecosystem, shaping the production, distribution and consumption of journalism on a global scale. Platform governance encompasses both self-regulatory arrangements and formal regulatory frameworks designed to structure the relationships between news organisations, audiences and technology companies. Central issues include content moderation, transparency of algorithmic decision-making, revenue-sharing agreements and power asymmetries between legacy publishers and platform giants. Co-governance models involving public authorities, platforms, media bodies and civil society seek to foster accountability, uphold journalistic standards and mitigate risks such as disinformation, monopolistic practices and editorial capture. The process of platformisation has reconfigured editorial workflows, audience engagement strategies and business models, prompting newsrooms to innovate in order to maintain independence and reach. Emerging research interrogates the infrastructural dependencies created by platform algorithms and examines how regulatory interventions and collaborative oversight mechanisms can influence the balance of power. These developments hold global significance, as policymakers, media practitioners and scholars strive to safeguard democratic information ecosystems while harnessing the innovative potential of digital platforms.

Research from Nature Portfolio

Recent studies have examined how prominent social media companies deploy crisis communication strategies to govern discourse and maintain legitimacy in the face of disinformation challenges. One analysis of a major platform’s newsroom narratives reveals that it frames itself as a responsible problem-solver, consistently emphasising stakeholder engagement while delineating its own role in developing and implementing solutions. By adopting key messaging that distances the platform from the genesis of false or misleading content and underscores its proactive interventions, these crisis communication practices function as a form of self-regulation that seeks to pre-empt external regulatory pressures and shape public trust in platform governance.

Platform Governance in Digital Journalism publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in platform governance in digital journalism across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Platform governance: The set of formal and informal rules, policies and mechanisms that shape how digital platforms manage content, user interactions and commercial arrangements in the news ecosystem.

Co-governance: Collaborative regulatory arrangements that involve platforms, public authorities, media organisations and civil society actors in the oversight and stewardship of digital platforms.

Platformisation: The process by which digital platforms become integral infrastructural actors in the production, distribution and monetisation of news.

Algorithmic moderation: The use of automated systems and machine-learning techniques to filter, prioritise or remove online content based on predefined criteria.

Crisis communication: Strategic messaging and discourse employed by organisations to manage reputational threats and stakeholder perceptions during disruptive events, including disinformation crises.

References

1. A different playbook for the same outcome? Examining Google’s and Meta’s strategic responses to Australia’s News Media Bargaining Code. New Media & Society (2024).
2. The Political Power of Platforms: How Current Attempts to Regulate Misinformation Amplify Opinion Power. Digital Journalism (2020).
3. The Infrastructure of News: Negotiating Infrastructural Capture and Autonomy in Data-Driven News Distribution. Media and Communication (2023).
4. Platform Configuration and Digital Materiality: How News Publishers Innovate Their Practices Amid Entanglements with the Evolving Technological Infrastructure of Platforms. Journalism Studies (2023).
5. Players’ strategy selection in co-governance and supervision of internet platforms’ monopolistic behaviors: A study on new media participation. PLOS ONE (2024).
6. Combatting disinformation with crisis communication: An analysis of Meta’s newsroom stories. Communications (2023).