數位媒體與社群平台使用者之勞動分析

An Analysis of the Labor of Digital Media and Social Networking Platforms Users

加拿大經濟學者Dallas Smythe四十年前以閱聽人商品概念批判電視觀眾無償收視勞動，生產出具備消費意識與傾向的閱聽人，賣給廣告主以賺取剩餘價值。當媒體從注意力經濟轉向投入經濟之際，數位時代的主動參與使用者似乎讓Smythe的說法更具說服力，而且大數據讓數位的閱聽人商品看來更具體、更鉅細靡遺。使用者的勞動成為數位媒體與社群平台的主要獲利來源，但是其中是否涉及剝削，卻引起左派陣營的爭議。本文認為，反對剝削的論點忽略了數位時代的隱形勞動與混雜經濟，更低估新經濟在消費領域中利用媒體使用者的生產力，打造替「認知資本主義」需求管理而勞動的新主體。 Canadian economist Dallas Smythe had invented the concept of audience commodity to criticize commercial televisions forty years ago. TV viewers, for him, were actually unpaid and working for media capitalists to produce certain audience with consumerist consciousness. Amid the transition from attention economy to engagement economy, active users of digital media and social networking platforms seem to render Smythe's argument much more convincing and detailed big data have also make audience commodity more palpable. However, there are some skeptics questioning the productivity and exploitation in such labor processes, although the contribution of users' labor to the so-called new economy has been largely recognized. This paper points out some invisible labor and hybrid online economy that have been neglected by these skeptics. And most importantly, the free/unpaid production of new subjectivity for the demand management of “cognitive capitalism” via users' online works has unfortunately underestimated as well.

Canadian economist Dallas Smythe had invented the concept of audience commodity to criticize commercial televisions forty years ago. TV viewers, for him, were actually unpaid and working for media capitalists to produce certain audience with consumerist consciousness. Amid the transition from attention economy to engagement economy, active users of digital media and social networking platforms seem to render Smythe's argument much more convincing and detailed big data have also make audience commodity more palpable. However, there are some skeptics questioning the productivity and exploitation in such labor processes, although the contribution of users' labor to the so-called new economy has been largely recognized. This paper points out some invisible labor and hybrid online economy that have been neglected by these skeptics. And most importantly, the free/unpaid production of new subjectivity for the demand management of “cognitive capitalism” via users' online works has unfortunately underestimated as well.