According to the keyword essay, Infrastructure is a mode of organization for a complex system. It is the intangible behind the scenes connections that hold together an orderly structure. The amalgamation of infrastructure and media is very interesting because for a very long time, infrastructure has been linked to the physical element and not the details that make these objects usable and manageable. An example is the social media infrastructure comprising the users and the application but also the complex algorithms used to develop and maintain it. Although usually associated with technologies, I think Infrastructure in society can be observed at the core foundation of a well established system in a given community. An example can be in the education sector . Institutionalised Education is not merely a single element but rather a mixture of components that make it exist. Thinking about the University of Richmond, I would say that the infrastructure does of course include current students and staff as the primary constituent but the infrastructure expands to the alumni, campus structures, shareholders, study abroad programs, clubs and a variety of other components that complete the puzzle.
3 thoughts on “Alvin- Infrastructure”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
I had never thought of the comparison of a communities infrastructure and infrastructure within media. I can see the similarities that you touched on by comparing the shown infrastructure such as current students and staff and interactions within the community of the University of Richmond and the communication and entertainment aspects of social media. Communication and entertainment are things that we are expecting to get when we enter the world of social media because those are the foundations of what the apps are built on but more subtle infrastructure such as algorithms that are in place to keep users on the app are less expected infrastructure such as at the University of Richmond shareholders and certain board members and their role on everyday life is not expected.
While reading this post, I noticed that you brought up how infrastructure is used as a tool to connect and hold things together. Your point reminded me of one of our other keywords: network. Infrastructure would go hand in hand with network if I were to utilize your definition, both words connecting groups that are organized or structured in hierarchical ways. If considering University of Richmond as an infrastructure, then I would say you would have to look past just the students and professors and take into account the faculty who run every aspect of the university behind the scenes.
I like that you called it “behind the scenes” because it is in a sense the inner workings of something. We don’t really know what’s going on behind the curtain but we know that it’s a network and there’s people working on it. I also like that you used the example of University of Richmond. For people who are looking at the school from afar, they don’t know what really goes on inside.