In one of the definitive works on the network society, Manuel Castells evokes Max Weber’s essay o... more In one of the definitive works on the network society, Manuel Castells evokes Max Weber’s essay on the spirit of capitalism to suggest that the “spirit of informationalism” is the cultural bedrock against which the network enterprise and informational capitalism operate (Castells 1996, 195–200). The tremendous economic and social transformations entailed by the rise of the network society, Castells suggests, are perhaps the result of material factors—namely, the restructuring of capitalism since the 1970s and the concurrent development and deployment of information and communication technology—but they must be accompanied by the rise of a new ethos, a new discourse to provide a general, cognitive map to interpret social life. Castells raises the question as to what the nature of this spirit might be but falls short of providing a systematic answer. This book provides a preliminary answer by analyzing contemporary digital discourse and uncovering the spirit of contemporary capitalism.
Society in the last four decades has witnessed two extraordinary transformations in advanced capi... more Society in the last four decades has witnessed two extraordinary transformations in advanced capitalism. One is the transformation of capitalism from Fordism to post-Fordism, involving changes not only in the regime of accumulation—that is, in how production is carried out, where, and by whom—but also in the mode of social regulation, entailing a whole set of political arrangements and cultural practices. This has been a deep social transformation: globalization, the “new economy,” Google, outsourcing, “just-in-time” production, the rise of India—these are just few of the new keywords in the lexicon of the new capitalism. The other transformation was the emergence of network technology (or information and communication technology) and its integration into virtually every sphere of life. This has been nothing short of a technological revolution: indeed, many of the keywords in the lexicon of the new technology parallel those of the new capitalism.
Recent scholarship has offered a modification to audience labour theory in the context of social ... more Recent scholarship has offered a modification to audience labour theory in the context of social media, suggesting that rather than merely working by watching advertisements, social media users also produce data, which is commodified by social media companies. This article offers a further analysis of audience labour in social media using Facebook’s Sponsored Stories as a case study. Sponsored Stories are ads rendered from naturally occurring users’ communication on Facebook. I argue that the value generated by users is based on two additional types of labour: the ‘self’ of users, who are mobilized as ‘celebrity’ avatars to advertise a brand, and the construction and maintenance of networks, or media channels through which ads are disseminated. Such analysis suggests that the audience is involved in three moments along the value chain of social media: consumption, production, and marketing. Put differently, valorization on social media takes place also through the work of the audience as marketers, entailing the construction and maintenance of targeted channels of communication, and the mobilization of ‘selves’ for the promotion of brands. The article suggests a comparison between the mass media and social media, along the coordinates of audience labour and advertisements as theoretical and empirical constants, respectively.
Recent accounts of social media have developed a powerful critical political economy analysis of ... more Recent accounts of social media have developed a powerful critical political economy analysis of social media, employing Dallas Smythe's notion of audience labour. Such analysis, which sees audiencing as a form of working producing surplus value, has been criticized for being too high and dry, employing the abstract categories of Marx's labour theory of value to analyse what regular users perceive as a fun, leisure, and empowering activity of using the web. This article concurs with the necessity of critical theory to not only offer an alternative interpretation of reality but to also point to social practices and subjects which manifest these alternative views. The article aims to couple the objective-scientific facet of audience labour theory with the subjective-lifeworld categories of media users that are the carriers of such knowledge. It does that by analysing a class-action lawsuit of Facebook users against the company concerning its Sponsored Stories advertising programme. Based on users' actions in the social network, they are mobilized as sponsors for products in ads, which appear on their friends' News Feed. An analysis of the legal case shows how users attempt to redefine their participation in social media in terms of work. Users put forth a critique of alienation (demanding that they have full control over the information they generate) and exploitation (demanding ownership over a greater share of the surplus value they produce). The article concludes that regular users are employing categories of audience labour theory in their struggle over digital value, making it a doubly suitable framework for analysing the political economy of social media, both objectively and subjectively.
In one of the definitive works on the network society, Manuel Castells evokes Max Weber’s essay o... more In one of the definitive works on the network society, Manuel Castells evokes Max Weber’s essay on the spirit of capitalism to suggest that the “spirit of informationalism” is the cultural bedrock against which the network enterprise and informational capitalism operate (Castells 1996, 195–200). The tremendous economic and social transformations entailed by the rise of the network society, Castells suggests, are perhaps the result of material factors—namely, the restructuring of capitalism since the 1970s and the concurrent development and deployment of information and communication technology—but they must be accompanied by the rise of a new ethos, a new discourse to provide a general, cognitive map to interpret social life. Castells raises the question as to what the nature of this spirit might be but falls short of providing a systematic answer. This book provides a preliminary answer by analyzing contemporary digital discourse and uncovering the spirit of contemporary capitalism.
Society in the last four decades has witnessed two extraordinary transformations in advanced capi... more Society in the last four decades has witnessed two extraordinary transformations in advanced capitalism. One is the transformation of capitalism from Fordism to post-Fordism, involving changes not only in the regime of accumulation—that is, in how production is carried out, where, and by whom—but also in the mode of social regulation, entailing a whole set of political arrangements and cultural practices. This has been a deep social transformation: globalization, the “new economy,” Google, outsourcing, “just-in-time” production, the rise of India—these are just few of the new keywords in the lexicon of the new capitalism. The other transformation was the emergence of network technology (or information and communication technology) and its integration into virtually every sphere of life. This has been nothing short of a technological revolution: indeed, many of the keywords in the lexicon of the new technology parallel those of the new capitalism.
Recent scholarship has offered a modification to audience labour theory in the context of social ... more Recent scholarship has offered a modification to audience labour theory in the context of social media, suggesting that rather than merely working by watching advertisements, social media users also produce data, which is commodified by social media companies. This article offers a further analysis of audience labour in social media using Facebook’s Sponsored Stories as a case study. Sponsored Stories are ads rendered from naturally occurring users’ communication on Facebook. I argue that the value generated by users is based on two additional types of labour: the ‘self’ of users, who are mobilized as ‘celebrity’ avatars to advertise a brand, and the construction and maintenance of networks, or media channels through which ads are disseminated. Such analysis suggests that the audience is involved in three moments along the value chain of social media: consumption, production, and marketing. Put differently, valorization on social media takes place also through the work of the audience as marketers, entailing the construction and maintenance of targeted channels of communication, and the mobilization of ‘selves’ for the promotion of brands. The article suggests a comparison between the mass media and social media, along the coordinates of audience labour and advertisements as theoretical and empirical constants, respectively.
Recent accounts of social media have developed a powerful critical political economy analysis of ... more Recent accounts of social media have developed a powerful critical political economy analysis of social media, employing Dallas Smythe's notion of audience labour. Such analysis, which sees audiencing as a form of working producing surplus value, has been criticized for being too high and dry, employing the abstract categories of Marx's labour theory of value to analyse what regular users perceive as a fun, leisure, and empowering activity of using the web. This article concurs with the necessity of critical theory to not only offer an alternative interpretation of reality but to also point to social practices and subjects which manifest these alternative views. The article aims to couple the objective-scientific facet of audience labour theory with the subjective-lifeworld categories of media users that are the carriers of such knowledge. It does that by analysing a class-action lawsuit of Facebook users against the company concerning its Sponsored Stories advertising programme. Based on users' actions in the social network, they are mobilized as sponsors for products in ads, which appear on their friends' News Feed. An analysis of the legal case shows how users attempt to redefine their participation in social media in terms of work. Users put forth a critique of alienation (demanding that they have full control over the information they generate) and exploitation (demanding ownership over a greater share of the surplus value they produce). The article concludes that regular users are employing categories of audience labour theory in their struggle over digital value, making it a doubly suitable framework for analysing the political economy of social media, both objectively and subjectively.
This chapter offers an analysis of the political economy of social media through audience labour ... more This chapter offers an analysis of the political economy of social media through audience labour theory. It uses the case study of Facebook’s Sponsored Stories advertising plan in order to show how audience labour occupies a central role in a digital economy, which relies increasingly on the commodification of personal information. The chapter also explores the ways in which social media users critique and challenge the contemporary arrangements of — or relations of production around — social media, where media companies have virtually an exclusive control over personal information.
Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies, Jan 2, 2021
ABSTRACT At the centre of this article is iNakba, a digital navigational application created by a... more ABSTRACT At the centre of this article is iNakba, a digital navigational application created by a Tel Aviv-based NGO in 2014. The app superimposes a layer of ruined Palestinian localities destroyed following the 1948 war, on top of the established and hegemonic Israeli geographical representation. At the end of this war and with the formation of the State of Israel, the presence of these localities was eradicated from both the territory and Israeli maps. The iNakba app uses Google maps and Waze as platforms for allowing users to find these localities and navigate towards them in order to increase knowledge about the repressed geographical past of the territory and bring about a political change. By examining iNakba from a media practice perspective, and by comparing it to a printed map published almost seven decades earlier and in very different circumstances, we highlight the unique role of layers in constructing and deconstructing cartographical knowledge. Layers, we argue, allow new potentialities for the representation and imagination of space, specifically, problematizing the eradication of Palestinian localities from the map and suggesting to re-imagine the territory as comprising the two histories and the two peoples. More broadly, the article suggests to understand layers as both a technical and political device.
This chapter analyzes digital platforms that are marked by a transition from a user-based to mark... more This chapter analyzes digital platforms that are marked by a transition from a user-based to market-based entity. By focusing on a migration between digital organizations, user labor practices and regulation, we investigate the trajectories of ‘community and monetization’ emerging with the platformization of the Internet, in order to uncover a growing constitutional legitimacy gap in multi-sided business models. We therefore attempt to unravel the delicate balance between regulation and co-regulation of digital platforms. Co-regulation entails taking into account the interests of multiple actors, incorporating different incentives for (user) participation across the ‘value chain’, which are said to increase transparency, pluralism, trust and respect for privacy. Based on legal cases surrounding Facebook, we make a case for a co-regulatory framework.
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