Journalism and Digital Labor
Praise for Journalism and Digital Labor
Deftly combining political economy and cultural theory, Tai Neilson explains the significance of digital journalism for society and for the workers who labour in the industry. A must read for those who wonder and worry about the future of democracy in a media world driven by clicks, algorithms and dollar signs.
Vincent Mosco, Queen's University, Canada, and Fudan University, China
Tai Neilson has succeeded in bringing together political economy, materialistic and cultural studies approaches on the work of journalists in New Zealand and the United States. This results in a rich palette of resistance as well as exploitation, of experimentation as much as standardisation, of love and suffering for the job. This book marks an important step in the struggle for better working conditions and quality journalism.
Mark Deuze, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands
All journalists are today digital workers operating in media organisations that have experienced the structural transformation towards digital capitalism. Tai Neilson's book is an excellent study of digital journalists labour in digital capitalism. He shows how the digitalisation of journalism has in the context of capitalism been confronted by the intensification of exploitation, the reification of journalists work, and the ideology of entrepreneurship. This book is an essential work and a must-read for anyone who cares about a democratic public sphere and wants to understand digital journalism.
Christian Fuchs, University of Westminster, UK
One of the challenges in restoring trust in news is re-establishing that there is value in the work of professional journalists. Through detailed interviews with working journalists about the impacts of digital platforms, Tai Neilson identifies new ways to understand the invisible labor of news work, and how journalist can build a future that goes beyond business as usual in a time of great disruption.
Terry Flew, University of Sydney, Australia
Drawing from careful ethnographic research and a diverse range of critical theory, Tai Neilson expertly elucidates the politics of digital news workboth the exploitation of journalists and the potential for resistance. It is a devastating portrait, but also a hopeful one. I urge students and scholars of digital labor, political economy, and journalism studiesas well as concerned citizens who care about the future of media and democracyto read this important book.
Victor Pickard, University of Pennsylvania, USA
This book investigates journalists work practices, professional ideologies, and the power relations that impact their work, arguing that reporters lives and livelihoods are shaped by digital technologies and new modes of capital accumulation.
Tai Neilson weaves together ethnographic approaches and critical theories of digital labor. Journalists experiences are at the heart of the book, which is based on interviews with news workers from Aotearoa New Zealand and the United States. The book also adopts a critical approach to the political economy of news across global and local contexts, digital start-ups, legacy media, nonprofits, and public service organizations. Each chapter features key debates illustrated by journalists personal narratives.
This book will be of great interest to researchers and students of journalism, media and communication, cultural studies, and the sociology of work.
Tai Neilson is a lecturer in media at Macquarie University, Sydney. His areas of expertise include the political economy of digital media and critical cultural theory. Tai has published work on journalism and digital media in Journalism, Triple-C Fast Capitalism, and the Global Media Journal. He is a co-editor of the book Research Methods for the Digital Humanities. Tai earned his PhD in Cultural Studies from George Mason University in Virginia. He also has an MA in Sociology from the New School for Social Research in New York and a BA (Hons) from Victoria University of Wellington.
Routledge Research in Journalism
20The Trump Presidency, Journalism, and Democracy
Edited by Robert E. Gutsche, Jr.
21Russia's Liberal Media
Handcuffed but Free
Vera Slavtcheva-Petkova
22Critical Perspectives on Journalistic Beliefs and Actions
Global Experiences
Edited by Eric Freedman, Robyn S. Goodman, and Elanie Steyn
23Economic News
Informing the Inattentive Audience
Arjen van Dalen, Helle Svensson, Anotinus Kalogeropoulos, Erik Albk, Claes H. de Vreese
24Reporting Humanitarian Disasters in a Social Media Age
Glenda Cooper
25The Rise of Nonprofit Investigative Journalism in the United States
Bill Birnbauer
26Tech Giants, Artificial Intelligence, and the Future of Journalism
Jason Whittaker
27Investigative Journalism, Democracy and the Digital Age
Andrea Carson
28Understanding Citizen Journalism as Civic Participation
Seungahn Nah and Deborah S. Chung
29Newsroom-Classroom Hybrids at Universities
Student Labor and the Journalism Crisis
Gunhild Ring Olsen
30Beyond Journalistic Norms
Role Performance and News in Comparative Perspective
Edited by Claudia Mellado
31Journalists and Confidential Sources
Colliding Public Interests in the Age of the Leak
Joseph M Fernandez
32Journalism and Digital Labor
Experiences of Online News Production
Tai Neilson
For more information about this series, please visit: https://www.routledge.com/Routledge-Research-in-Journalism/book-series/RRJ
First published 2021
by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
2021 Tai Neilson
The right of Tai Neilson to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested for this book
ISBN: 978-0-367-21789-1 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-429-26609-6 (ebk)
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I dedicate this book to the news workers who generously offered their time to provide insights for this research.
Contents
List of tables
List of abbreviations
1Global changes and national news
2The digitization of journalism: Typewriter, camera, and electronic tape
