Core post-Week 6

I have several issues with the Andrejevic piece, definitely one of my least favorite readings of the semester thus far. His sample is clearly biased (as he also admits) and it doesn’t back up the extent of the arguments he tries to make. Fandom in general, and even interactive fandom as a more restricted category, extends way beyond TWoP, but he uses his survey results from self-selected respondents to make general statements about fan labor. Even if we accept this could be a representative set of data, there are moments it looked like he really stretched what people said to fit them in his argument about exploitation.

Another problem I have with this article is the way theories are introduced to the data: throughout the article he refers to Gramsci, Foucault’s notion of governmentality, the idea of “active citizen” of neoliberal state and Habermas, but all these arguments originated in the political realm doesn’t seamlessly connect to the content or scope of his media industries research as he assumes. They look rather glued on to the article, it’s very unclear how those theories actually help us to make sense the data he presents.

Finally, I am not convinced at all by the claim that audience work here can be categorized as exploitation. It is very hard to make a case for exploitation when your data suggests no concrete examples of it. He doesn’t cite any respondent who feels exploited or any compelling case. His argument about free labor and exploitation sounds like he is describing the situation of young artists who are expected to give away their labor for free in exchange for being noticed by someone in the industry, not audience work (or Jenkins’ example with Star Wars would make a better case). Just because fan work creates free resources and services for the producers doesn’t mean its exploitation. People who participate in this economy are very aware of the possibility that their posts may be read and incorporated to the shows, and they consent to it. There is no promise or expectation of compensation here. It would be another story if people were made to believe that their performance on these forums may be a gateway to a TV job, but that’s not the case. Besides, he acknowledges that some of these people are freelancers who are paid, so the difference between a fan participant and an employee is not that unclear.