Toward a Political Economy of ‘Audience Labour’ in the Digital Era

This article contributes to a political economic theory centred on the concept of “audience labour”. First, the previous use of the concept of audience labour is briefly traced and the process of rethinking the concept as the basis of a political economic theory is begun. Second, a theory of the aud...

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Main Author: Brice Nixon
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Paderborn University: Media Systems and Media Organisation Research Group 2014-09-01
Series:tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.triple-c.at/index.php/tripleC/article/view/535
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author Brice Nixon
author_facet Brice Nixon
author_sort Brice Nixon
collection DOAJ
description This article contributes to a political economic theory centred on the concept of “audience labour”. First, the previous use of the concept of audience labour is briefly traced and the process of rethinking the concept as the basis of a political economic theory is begun. Second, a theory of the audience labour process is developed, drawing on previous theories of audience activities of cultural consumption as productive activities of signification and adapting Marx’s theory of the human labour process to the audience labour process. Third, a political economy of audience labour is outlined. As a theory of the basic processes through which communicative capital can control and extract value from audience labour, it describes the exploitation of audience labour and accumulation of communicative capital through distribution relationships of rent and interest. Finally, the continuing centrality of audience labour exploitation in the digital era is discussed.
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publisher Paderborn University: Media Systems and Media Organisation Research Group
record_format Article
series tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique
spelling doaj-art-e7320a8d1b8c425a8283f7b47ab037c82025-08-20T03:39:18ZengPaderborn University: Media Systems and Media Organisation Research GrouptripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique1726-670X2014-09-0112210.31269/triplec.v12i2.535535Toward a Political Economy of ‘Audience Labour’ in the Digital EraBrice NixonThis article contributes to a political economic theory centred on the concept of “audience labour”. First, the previous use of the concept of audience labour is briefly traced and the process of rethinking the concept as the basis of a political economic theory is begun. Second, a theory of the audience labour process is developed, drawing on previous theories of audience activities of cultural consumption as productive activities of signification and adapting Marx’s theory of the human labour process to the audience labour process. Third, a political economy of audience labour is outlined. As a theory of the basic processes through which communicative capital can control and extract value from audience labour, it describes the exploitation of audience labour and accumulation of communicative capital through distribution relationships of rent and interest. Finally, the continuing centrality of audience labour exploitation in the digital era is discussed. https://www.triple-c.at/index.php/tripleC/article/view/535Audience LabourCommunicative CapitalCommunicative ProductionSignificationCultural ConsumptionDallas Smythe
spellingShingle Brice Nixon
Toward a Political Economy of ‘Audience Labour’ in the Digital Era
tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique
Audience Labour
Communicative Capital
Communicative Production
Signification
Cultural Consumption
Dallas Smythe
title Toward a Political Economy of ‘Audience Labour’ in the Digital Era
title_full Toward a Political Economy of ‘Audience Labour’ in the Digital Era
title_fullStr Toward a Political Economy of ‘Audience Labour’ in the Digital Era
title_full_unstemmed Toward a Political Economy of ‘Audience Labour’ in the Digital Era
title_short Toward a Political Economy of ‘Audience Labour’ in the Digital Era
title_sort toward a political economy of audience labour in the digital era
topic Audience Labour
Communicative Capital
Communicative Production
Signification
Cultural Consumption
Dallas Smythe
url https://www.triple-c.at/index.php/tripleC/article/view/535
work_keys_str_mv AT bricenixon towardapoliticaleconomyofaudiencelabourinthedigitalera