Simran Agarwal

Bio

Simran Agarwal is a doctoral researcher at the LabSIC and LabEx ICCA. Her research titled ‘Platform Governance and the political economy of the Digital News Industry in India’ looks at the various forms, mechanisms and impacts of platform governance on the digital news landscape in India. Her thesis supervisors are Phillippe Bouquillion and Franck Rebillard.

OrcID – https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6428-1145

Research Interests

• Platform Governance
• Political Economy of Digital News Industry in India
• Platformisation of cultural production
• Regulatory Governance and Politics in the Global South

Scientific, Administrative and Educational Roles

• Doctoral Researcher at LabSIC & LabEx ICCA
• Lecturer at SciencesPo Reims (2024) – Undergraduate/ License 2 Course: Digital Cultures
• Lecturer at SciencesPo Lille (2023-2024) – Graduate/ Masters 2 Course: Political Economy of the Digital
• Co-organiser of international research seminar ‘Socio-Technical Intermediaries & Platformization of Culture’ on 12 April 2024
• Co-organiser of the RJC Journée d’Etudes ‘Cultural Policies: Evolution, Relevance and Influence’ on 24 May 2024
• Member of the Bureau of Réseau des Jeunes Chercheurs du Labex ICCA (2022-2023)

Recent Publications

1. Agarwal, Simran. 2024. Rooting Platform Dependencies in the Digital News Economy: Google News Initiative in India. International Journal of Communication. InPress
2. Parthasarathi, Vibodh and Simran Agarwal. 2023. Platformization of Matchmaking: Reconfiguring Social Economies in India. In Eds.(2023). Digital Platforms and the Global South. Routledge
3. Agarwal, Simran. 2022. State Interest in Content Governance Through Platforms. SciencesPo Chair Digital, Governance and Sovereignty. August 29.
4. Parthasarathi, Vibodh and Simran Agarwal. 2020. Rein and Laissez Faire: Dual Personality of Media Regulation in India. Digital Journalism, Special Issue on Policy Making in Digital Journalism. DOI: 10.1080/21670811.2020

News Articles / Other Publications

1. Agarwal, Simran. 2024. « How India uses national interest as a smokescreen to muzzle the media ». 360Info. DOI: 10.54377/038c-f558
2. Agarwal, Simran and Shubhangi Heda. 2023. « Media Regulations in India: Government Overreach Disguised as ‘Parity’ ». Tech Policy Press.
3. Agarwal, Simran and Charis Papaevangelou. 2023. « Highlights from the 2023 Platform Governance Research Network Conference ». Data & Society
4. Parthasarathi, Vibodh and Simran Agarwal. 2020. “Media Influence Matrix, India: Funding Journalism.” Central European University (Budapest).
5. Parthasarathi, Vibodh and Simran Agarwal. 2019 “Media Influence Matrix, India: Politics, Government and Regulations.” Central European University (Budapest).

Presentations

1. Agarwal, Simran. 2024. « Platformisation Intermediaries: Optimizing News for Platforms in India ». Presented at the Association of Internet Researchers Conference, Sheffield, UK.
2. Agarwal, Simran. 2024. “Platformized Matchmaking : (Re)Defining the Contours of Intimate Relationships in India.” Presented at the Global Digital Intimacies, at the University of Amsterdam
3. Agarwal, Simran. 2024 “Optimizing News for Platforms: Emerging Intermediaries in India.” Presented at the Seminar on Socio-technical Intermediaries & Platformisation of Culture, Paris
4. Agarwal, Simran. 2023. “Governance Through Platforms in India.” Presented at Oxford Media Policy Summer School, Oxford University.
5. Agarwal, Simran. 2022. “Journalism Support Initiatives: Infrastructural Extensions of Platforms in India.” Presented at the Global Perspectives on Cultural Production, at the University of Amsterdam
6. Agarwal, Simran. 2022. “Rooting Platform Dependencies in Digital News Economy.” Presented at the Pre-ICA’22 Conference on From international news flows to platformization of journalism: global news diversity in perspective, at Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris
7. Agarwal, Simran. 2022. “Alternative Regulation of Social Media Content in India: The Conditional Power of Civil Society.” Presented at the Pre-ICA’22 Conference on Alternative Content Regulation on Social Media, at Paris-Pantheon-Assas University
8. Agarwal, Simran. 2021 “State Interest in Content Governance on Platforms in India.” Presented at the First Annual Conference of the Platform Governance Research Network
9. Agarwal, Simran. 2021 “From Platforms to Platformization: The Reconfiguration of Social Economies in India.” Presented at the Digital Platforms in the Global South. LabSIC, CNRS, Carism, in France