Tension between autonomy and dependency: insights into platform work of professional (video)bloggers

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to extend knowledge and understanding of work in the platform economy by focusing on the phenomenon of (video)blogging on and around social media platforms. The growth of the platform economy has attracted considerable attention in recent years. As yet, however, research has focused almost exclusively on labour platforms that operate to match the supply of and demand for paid work in fields such as food delivery, ride hailing, cleaning or data entry activities. Surprisingly little is known about work and its manifestations on other platforms, despite the fact that the platform economy embraces a huge variety of arrangements for income generation. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 18 German (video)bloggers we show that (video)blogging constitutes a specific form of ‘digital self-employment’ that combines features of traditional self-employment with digitally mediated dependencies. While (video)bloggers enjoy both a great deal of independence from managerial control and a high degree of autonomy, they are also subject to the rules and algorithms set by large tech companies. The example of (video)blogging, together with the experiences of (video)bloggers, highlights the extent to which the platform economy has created new types of work that need to be taken into consideration to enable a deeper understanding of the evolving dynamics of the platform economy and how these are transforming the nature of work.

Self-representation as platform work: Stories about working as social media content creators

“…This is why they are active on several platforms at the same time. As also evident from our own empirical research (Hoose and Rosenbohm, 2022), this dispersion across different platforms also covers quite different activities, which are then woven together into an overall construct of social media self-employment. As a further factor for success as a content creator, the great importance of authenticity is emphasised ( Van Driel and Dumitrica, 2021): only those who act 'authentically' and are not perceived as artificial figures of the advertising industry have sustainable success in gaining attention from the audience.…”

Social media and platform work: Stories, practices, and workers’ organisation

“…There are other researches more focused on content creators and their labour. Hoose and Rosenbohm (2023) analysed how German creators present themselves and their everyday work as narratives and self-representation, with a specific ‘professional creator narrative’. They pointed out content creation as platform work, as how they use terms of ‘a lot of work’, ‘real work’, and ‘a lot of effort’ to represent their work, building relationships with audiences, sponsors, and platforms.…”

Augmenting Sustainable Fashion on Instagram

“…However, many of these individuals lack the credentials of a traditional fashion critic and gatekeeper, in that they may not be possess a more formal knowledge or experience of the industry [25]. Therefore, although originally celebrated for their impartiality and perceived objectivity as fashion critics, bloggers-turned-influencers (now often known as content creators) have attracted increasing negative attention recently due to heightened commercialisation and promotion of fast fashion brands [26][27][28]. Words such as credibility, authenticity, and trust tend to be used in discussions regarding these individuals, definitions of which are difficult to pin down absolutely.…”