Streaming against the Environment: Digital Infrastructures, Video Compression, and the Environmental Footprint of Video Streaming

Marek Jancovic, Judith Keilbach

Research output: Chapter in Book / Report / Conference proceedingChapterAcademicpeer-review

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Abstract

Building on an infrastructural approach, this chapter investigates the environmental impact of video streaming. It clarifies some of the less obvious relationships between media infrastructures, video compression standards, and electronics supply chains and demonstrates how their interactions unfold material effects on the environment. Complicating recent critical research on data centers, we posit that existing models for calculating the ecological footprint of video streaming cannot capture its full extent and advocate for an interdisciplinary approach to data, computation, and infrastructure. This approach informs our argument that the development of new compression standards redistributes environmental responsibility in a way that benefits streaming providers and data centers at the expense of end users and hardware manufacturers.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationSituating Data
Subtitle of host publicationInquiries in Algorithmic Culture
EditorsKarin van Es, Verhoeff Nanna
Place of PublicationAmsterdam
PublisherAUP
Chapter4
Pages85-102
Number of pages18
ISBN (Electronic)9789048555444
ISBN (Print)9789463722971
Publication statusPublished - 2023

Keywords

  • video compression
  • video streaming
  • media infrastructure
  • environment

VU Research Profile

  • Science for Sustainability

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