This presentation is about the untold story of media infrastructures. We benefit from these infrastructures which by virtue of their invisibility, obscure social and environmental responsibility. ‘Data centres of convenience’ is a term derived from shipping logistics and flags of convenience (Campbell and Chellel 2022). The term underscores hidden systems, e.g. dividing ownership and management of the data and energy infrastructures, or tech companies domiciling in tax havens rather than the country where data centres are built, thus avoiding national taxation and labour and environmental standards (Traynor 2024). 

First, the talk makes visible dominant storytelling for data centres of convenience, told by top level actors and re-enforcing industrial logics and corporate power without responsibility for the impact of data centres on the earth’s atmosphere. Then, the talk draws on Gordon’s (2004) work on the power of telling social stories that imagine the world differently.  How can we power up alternative storytelling that contests dominant narratives, reflects on inequalities and redistributes responsibility for media infrastructures. Here, researchers can attend to the layering of storytelling of infrastructures and the agentic role of civic actors in alternative visions.