`Meat, Mask, Burden`

Abstract

This article will argue that the 'reflexive project of the self ' (Giddens) has become an explicit form of labour under post-Fordist capital in the form of 'self-branding'. Here, work on the self is purposeful and outer-directed; self-production is heavily narrated, marked by the visual codes of the mainstream culture industry, and subject to the extraction of value. The article will explore inflections of self-branding across several different mediated forms. Contemporary marketing literature identifies the construction of a branded persona as a central strategy in the negotiation of increasingly complex corporate environments. Recently the practice and logic of personal branding has moved out of the boardroom and into the television studio. Television shows such as The Apprentice and American Idol invent a narrative of self-branding and simultaneously produce branded personae. Websites such as 2night.com extract value from partying young people; photographers take pictures at nightclubs and link them to advertisements online, blurring the distinction between product and consumer, private self and instrumental associative object. The logic and practice of self-branding is inflected differently again on social network sites such as facebook.com or myspace.com, which are inventories of various types of 'selves'. These forms of self-branding, found across several different kinds of media, illustrate the erosion of any meaningful distinction between notions of the self and capitalist processes of production and consumption.

Expertise and Collaboration: Cultural Workers’ Performance on Social Media

“…The evidence of collaboration and mutual aid in my analysis also offers a departure from more individualistic conceptions of social media activity, particularly self-branding (Hearn, 2008;Page, 2012;Marwick, 2013) and self-promotion (Scharff, 2015). Such ideas imply an inward-looking and self-centred approach to social media performance, and while of course the artists in my sample are performing expertise for their own benefit, they are often raising the profile of other artists at the same time.…”

“Get Off My Internets”: How Anti-Fans Deconstruct Lifestyle Bloggers’ Authenticity Work

“…When we think about how online micro-celebrities manage their personas, 'authenticity' emerges as a site of value and a form of labour: it is thus appropriate when Richard A. Peterson uses the term "authenticity work" (1997, p. 223) to describe the effort that goes into presenting oneself as authentic. Because 'authentic' performances of subjectivity are an important self-branding strategy for building and maintaining an online audience, we might think of authenticity as a form of labour (Hearn 2008, Genz 2015, Marwick 2013) aimed at accumulating socio-cultural capital, which, for bloggers, can sometimes be exchanged for monetary gain in the form of sponsored posts, ad revenue, and even book deals. In the production and marketing of goods, conveying an aura of 'authenticity' in a product increases its value, and marketing literature suggests that strategies for 'rendering authenticity' in a product are important part of any business model (Gilmore & Pine 2007).…”

Audience Commodification: A Source of Innovation in Business Models

“…Among these researchers, Manzerolle (2010) proposes the phrase "prosumer commodification" to explain participation of users in this process, too. Hearn (2008) has a critical perspective and debates about self-commodification under variety of digital labour practices. In any case, by using new technologies, users perform actions that make themselves easier to commodify by businesses.…”