Political Economy of New Media
PEM W 11


Digital Labour: Unpaid Value
ÊCase of Huffington Post
ÊIt was sold to AOL in 2011, $315 Million (collected by the owner)
ÊContributors such as ArtScene &Visual Art Soursce  E-Strike
ÊA lawsuit claimed $105 million on be half of “uncompensated” blog contributors
ÊFreelancer, Prosumer, Unemployed worker
Ê“Comment is Free”
ÊComputer VS Commodification
ÊHow surplus value is generated?
ÊOur everyday life becomes raw material for capital accumulation
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Cheap labor
ÊCase of Foxconn & Amazon
ÊMade by Foxconn and Sold by Amazon & Walmart
ÊFoxconn: No brand, extreme profit. East Asian division of digital labor – R&D – Subcontractor –
Regional Migration
ÊAmazon: Global distribution centers: Cheap labor for well-to-do consumers
ÊWalmart: Prototype generating cheap labor market
ÊPrice Comparison!
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Mode of Production
ÊPlatforms: Chrome, Gmail, Photoshop, Youtube, MS Office
ÊWindows & iOS & Android & Kindle
ÊSmartphone, Computer
ÊTechnological Standard: MP3, Bluetooth, PDF etc.
ÊPublic authority relies on private institutions (Technical consultation)
ÊParadox of Private Internet security
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Profits
ÊProfits of captalists <- surplus value, unpaid and forced labor, products of which the producers
do not control
ÊExploitation: not simply about a loss of money, but also a loss of control over one’s productive
and creative activity (Alienation)
ÊLimited platforms, limited publishing agents, market dependency…. Estranged by our labor.
ÊFalse Consciousness: Publicity - Ideology of Communicative Capitalism. Pleasure – Opium in
Communicative Capitalism

Commodity Fetishism
ÊIt is the social relations of production which govern the way in which material objects enter the
economic process (Marx).
Ê Value of material objects (commodities) is determined by social relations
ÊNetwork Fetishism, Information Fetishism -> Share more, produce more, consume more -> Add value of
Social media platforms, mobile providers, hardware manufacturers, and information capitals

Platform Capitalism
ÊPlatform - Intermediary digital infrastructures that enable different user groups (customers,
advertisers, service providers, producers, suppliers) – to interact
ÊPlatforms rely and thrive on network effects (Common features: exponential growth and
unprecedented capital accumulation )
Ê Advertising platforms, Cloud platforms, Lean platforms
ÊFour Common Features
Êexpansion of extraction
Êposition as a gatekeeper
Êconvergence of markets
Êthe enclosure of ecosystems