Networks, cultural capital and creative labour in the British independent television industry

Abstract

This article examines the significance of networking practices as a means of finding work and developing a career in the British independent television production sector (ITPS). The findings are based on qualitative research carried out between 2005 and 2006, based on in-depth interviews with 20 freelancers working in the ITPS. The article studies the importance of networking not only as a mode of finding work, but also a mechanism of exclusion, favouring individuals with high levels of cultural and social capital. Drawing on sociological theories of networks such as those of Granovetter and Burt, the article considers the emergence of new patterns of hierarchy and discrimination within the ITPS, in a context where formal recruitment procedures are often bypassed in favour of network relationships. It also examines the implications for television workers of the discursive shift towards networking, where the ‘networkextender’ is presented as the ideal within contemporary management discourse.

Let’s Start Your Own Vlog Promoting Indonesian Digital Entrepreneur Using Youtube Channel

“…Compared with the mass media, the internetparticularly social media -allows new, more intense forms of exploitation (Andrejevic, 2011a(Andrejevic, , 2011bFisher, 2012;Fuchs, 2011aFuchs, , 2011bLee, 2011;Peterson, 2008;Scholz, 2013). Commodifying audience labor on social media requires highly sophisticated techniques of collecting, analyzing and manipulating these kinds of data (Beer, 2009;Kang & McAllister, 2011;McStay, 2011), but the audience plays a key role in producing them.…”

Interning and Investing: Rethinking Unpaid Work, Social Capital, and the “Human Capital Regime”

“…Internships could be seen as a force for perpetuating inequalities, exploitation, and discrimination by developing a closed social system of self-serving capabilities that interns alone can excel in but that necessarily excludes others-the "disappeared majority," as Lee (2011) notes, that needs to be "brought back in," as discussed by Fine (2010). Rather than demonize the intern, however, could we embrace this figure and instead explore how networks of solidarity among co-workers stretch beyond the individual's self-interest towards an alternative coappreciation that can disrupt and crack open the closed networks that perpetuate inequality in the sector?…”

Internships, Workfare, and the Cultural Industries: A British Perspective

“…Despite the rich irony of politicians berating the inequity of internships, whilst having benefited from similar arrangements themselves (Prince 2011), the discussion merely reflected what had by then already become a key political-economic reality for many graduates seeking paid employment. However, a number of activist interventions were made, in particular the creation of campaign groups such as Intern Aware and Interns Anonymous (the latter is now defunct, but provided many first-hand accounts of exploitative internships in the UK) and renewed focus was given to the inequities of a culture where the most prestigious jobs demanded extensive unpaid work, and were often facilitated by shared personal and social networks (Lee 2011). !…”

“…As Kate Oakley (2013), David Lee (2011), Jane Holgate and Sonia McKay (2009), and Doris Ruth Eikhof and Chris Warhurst (2013) have noted, creative work has become a zone of stratification and exclusion for non-white, middle-class entrants. From a normative perspective, this is a major cause for concern, undermining the rhetoric of diversity and equality within the creative industries.…”