Research on digital labor tends to fall into idealized, oppositional binaries that are judgmental rather than based on detailed analyses of the actual system or site. Our goal in this article is to provide a view on digital labor that is grounded less in speculation but in narratives from the producers of the platforms and content of the digital economy. To provide original perspectives on digital work we emphasize the agency of the producers and freelancers working at the global outsourcing firm Samasource and the cable television network Current TV. Our analyses of these two cases reveal important questions regarding 1) the values and organizational culture of firm founders and executives and 2) the mobility of freelance workers within the networks of digital labor. In conclusion we interrogate how wealth is distributed within the network. Across these questions, we introduce a research agenda that considers to bridge the ethical challenges of labor exploitation as well as the promises of social entrepreneurship in the digital economy.
This essay examines weeklong technology retreats in Silicon Valley. These retreats embody digital healthism, which I define as the discourse that promotes the selfregulation of digital consumption for personal health. I argue that the self-regulation advanced by digital healthism insufficiently addresses the politics of media refusal. Technology retreats channel frustrations about social media use into opportunities for personal and corporate growth instead of political activism. I consider how technology retreats might participate in a dialogue about the regulation of social media platforms and companies by states. Evidence for these claims come from ethnographic research with the founders of a technology retreat in Silicon Valley.
This paper presents the results of our corroborated study of grassroots Internet sites and authors in the nation of Kyrgyzstan, exceptional in Central Asia for its deregulated Internet policy. The study presents a set of semistructured interviews with notable grassroots Internet authors and activists, including bloggers, forum participants, and journalists, and analyzes this data via a critical communication and media studies lens to point to significant implications on emergent social, cultural, and political movements in the nation.
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