Algorithmic precarity in cultural work

Duffy, Brooke

doi:10.1177/2057047320959855

Cited by 56 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Consequently, she continued, "You can kind of think about the different ways that Instagram might do that, and different rules they're gonna put in place to make that happen." This perceived obligation to reckon with the volatility of platforms' algorithmic systems introduces a condition that we have elsewhere described as "algorithmic precarity," wherein anticipating the impact of these systems becomes a necessary part of the job (Duffy, 2020).…”

Section: Platform Precarity: Features and Algorithmsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Nested Precarities of Creative Labor on Social Media

Duffy

Pinch

Sannon

et al. 2021

Social Media + Society

Self Cite

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While metrics have long played an important, albeit fraught, role in the media and cultural industries, quantified indices of online visibility—likes, favorites, subscribers, and shares—have been indelibly cast as routes to professional success and status in the digital creative economy. Against this backdrop, this study sought to examine how creative laborers’ pursuit of social media visibility impacts their processes and products. Drawing upon in-depth interviews with 30 aspiring and professional content creators on a range of social media platforms—Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Pinterest, and Twitter—we contend that their experiences are not only shaped by the promise of visibility, but also by its precarity. As such, we present a framework for assessing the volatile nature of visibility in platformized creative labor, which includes unpredictability across three levels: (1) markets, (2) industries, and (3) platform features and algorithms. After mapping out this ecological model of the nested precarities of visibility, we conclude by addressing both continuities with—and departures from—the earlier modes of instability that characterized cultural production, with a focus on the guiding logic of platform capitalism.

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Section: Platform Precarity: Features and Algorithmsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Nested Precarities of Creative Labor on Social Media

Duffy

Pinch

Sannon

et al. 2021

Social Media + Society

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Similarly, creators call out Buzzfeed's toxic workplace culture for causing mental health issues but simultaneously question YouTube's platform as a 'healthy' alternative. They ponder their intimate labour to sustain their pre-existent following, creation fatigue, and algorithmic precarity (Duffy, 2020) to win the visibility game openly with their audiences. Hereby, they are gaining leverage with their viewers against YouTube's opaque platform governance, arguably bolstering public support for a more sustainable career on YouTube.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

From Buzzfeed Creator to (In)dependent Youtuber - Managing Precarious Labour Through Gossip

Mniestri

Richter

2021

SPIR

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Several known Buzzfeed Creators have left the company’s toxic culture by beginning a career as YouTubers. They hoped that their Buzzfeed audience would migrate to support their company-independent channel. Often represented as a move towards independence by creators, cultural production research (Nieborg & Poell, 2018; Burgess et al. 2020) has shown that creators are platform and audience dependent for viability. Therefore, we are questioning whether being an (in)dependent YouTuber would be more precarious than being an employed Buzzfeed creator. How does the migration from Buzzfeed to YouTube creator offer both independence and a host of new contingencies? Situating a content and discourse analysis of “Why I left Buzzfeed” YouTube videos and comments within academic and popular discourse, we understand these videos as sources of ‘gossip’ (Bishop, 2018) defined as “loose, unmethodological talk that is generative” (2590). Gossip can be beneficial to ex-Buzzfeed creators building on their Buzzfeed association to boost algorithmic visibility. Additionally, gossip is a valuable form of knowledge exchange for content creators to stay informed on discourse, support one another, and communicate their perspective on former Buzzfeed content. Gossip also allows us as researchers to break through the blackbox of YouTube content creation to better comprehend precarity as multifaceted. We hypothesize that creators have to balance different aspects of precarity depending on Buzzfeed as employer or YouTube as distributor. The imaginary of independence is a false friend as both employed and self-employed creators are dependent on platform governance and their platform public (Mniestri & Gekker, 2020) for success.

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“…The rules of ordinality change often—perhaps in an effort to circumvent “Goodhardt's law,” 43 or as part of ongoing power plays in algorithmic systems (Ziewitz 2019). This makes scored positions “algorithmically precarious” (Duffy et al., 2020) and creates uncertainty about both the government of subjects and the legitimate direction of self‐conduct. As the game of ordinal citizenship becomes increasingly hard to play, tech hammers one last nail in the coffin of liberal ideology.…”

Section: The Life Of a Civilized Beingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ordinal citizenship

Fourcade

2021

British Journal of Sociology

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The expansion of social citizenship in the 20th century mitigated the brute effects of economic inequality in people's lives. The institutionalization of social rights and entitlement programs recognized that access to "the life of a civilized being" (to use TH Marshall's (1950, p. 11) quaint phrase) should not depend on wealth only. To be sure, the process was incomplete, stigmatizing, and often brutal, particularly for the poor and for minorities of various kinds. 1 Still, the reliable provision of education, healthcare, housing, and social insurance turned into one of the main raisons d'être and functions of governments throughout the world, while also strengthening their claims to demand sacrifices (e.g., military conscription) and duties (e.g., income taxes) from the newly constituted citizenry in return. These very facts, however, also made social rights suspect. Unlike civil and political rights,

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Algorithmic precarity in cultural work

Cited by 56 publications

References 18 publications

The Nested Precarities of Creative Labor on Social Media

The Nested Precarities of Creative Labor on Social Media

From Buzzfeed Creator to (In)dependent Youtuber - Managing Precarious Labour Through Gossip

Ordinal citizenship

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