Petr Szczepanik

@petrszczepanik.bsky.social

620 followers 410 following 19 posts

Media industries in East Central Europe | streaming platforms | production studies | Assoc. Prof. at Charles University, Prague

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Political science 37%

Economics 19%

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Reposted by Petr Szczepanik

miloš hroch @miloshroch.bsky.social · Jul 28

Ve Vlně si povídáme se @sarahxabulkasim.bsky.social o naší studii Playlisting the Periphery, kde se s Petrem Szczepanikem zaměřujeme na nerovnosti mezi centry a periferiemi v platformní geografii Spotify.

wave.rozhlas.cz/globalni-pla...

Globální playlisty nejsou pro všechny. Pro Spotify jsme pořád periferie, říká studie

Globální streamovací služba Spotify se prezentuje jako platforma, kde má každý umělec nebo umělkyně stejnou šanci oslovit publikum bez ohledu na to, odkud pochází. Realita ale vypadá jinak. Hudba ze s...

wave.rozhlas.cz

Petr Szczepanik @petrszczepanik.bsky.social · Jun 26

6/6 These actors develop “platform imaginaries” that internalize spatial gatekeeping. Their sense of distance from platform and cultural centers shapes how they pitch, optimize, and strategize—often reinforcing the very hierarchies they seek to overcome.

Petr Szczepanik @petrszczepanik.bsky.social · Jun 26

5/6 The article offers a typology of intermediaries: (1) platform-responsive creators, (2) adaptive traditional gatekeepers, (3) platform-aligned distributors, and (4) intra-platform gatekeepers—each with distinct roles in navigating platform power.

Petr Szczepanik @petrszczepanik.bsky.social · Jun 26

4/6 Platform intermediaries matter—but their agency is shaped by geography. Artists, digital distributors, and local label staff carry out “visibility labor,” yet their influence depends on proximity to Spotify’s algorithmic and corporate core.

Petr Szczepanik @petrszczepanik.bsky.social · Jun 26

3/6 ECE countries like Czechia or Poland are positioned as consumption markets rather than hubs of exportable music. Spotify’s playlist strategies and market segmentation reflect and reinforce this peripheral status.

Petr Szczepanik @petrszczepanik.bsky.social · Jun 26

2/6 Despite Spotify’s rhetoric of egalitarian access, visibility remains uneven. Editorial playlists reproduce older center–periphery hierarchies, prioritizing Anglo-American content while marginalizing artists from less central regions.

Petr Szczepanik @petrszczepanik.bsky.social · Mar 15

The article is a part of the EJCS special issue "Global Media Industries in Semi-peripheral Europe", ed. by Aniko Imre and Sylwia Szostak.

Petr Szczepanik @petrszczepanik.bsky.social · Mar 15

5/5🔹 Production designers and local citizens as Benjaminian allegorists – They ‘mourn’ the fragmentation and commodification of their lived world while also anticipating its reintegration into the (digitally composited) fictional world of the final show.

journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Petr Szczepanik @petrszczepanik.bsky.social · Mar 15

4/5🔹 An allegory of platform capitalism – beyond its fictional world, Carnival Row serves as an unintended figuration of today’s streaming production mode, where local labor and sites are both essential and erased.

Petr Szczepanik @petrszczepanik.bsky.social · Mar 15

3/5🔹 Industry-informed textual analysis – what reading strategies can uncover traces of peripheral labor and locations without falling in the trap of intentional reflexivity? What can Benjaminian concepts of fragmentation, ruins and restitution teach us about allegories of streaming productions?

Petr Szczepanik @petrszczepanik.bsky.social · Mar 15

2/5🔹 Mobile streaming production deepens global inequalities – While bringing unprecedentedly high-budget, complex commissions to peripheral regions, it reinforces labor asymmetries, centralizes financial and creative control, and fosters new dependencies.

Petr Szczepanik @petrszczepanik.bsky.social · Mar 15

1/5🎥🏭When platform capitalism meets local labor: A Prague perspective on global streaming production.

My new article examines how Amazon's Carnival Row—filmed in Prague—embodies the contradictions of platform imperialism. 🧵👇

#StreamingMobileProduction #PlatformImperialism #CarnivalRow #Prague.

Petr Szczepanik @petrszczepanik.bsky.social · Mar 15

2/6🔹 Mobile streaming production deepens global inequalities – While bringing unprecedentedly high-budget, complex commissions to peripheral regions, it reinforces labor asymmetries, centralizes financial and creative control, and fosters new dependencies.

Reposted by Petr Szczepanik

Mediamorphis @mediamorphis.bsky.social · Feb 4

Pleased to announce that the SSHRC-supported Global Media & Internet Concentration Project released two new reports today. one on media ownership & concentration in the United States, 1984-2023 & a 2nd on the Czech Republic covering 2019-2022. gmicp.org/media-owners... gmicp.org/communicatio... 1/