Brooke Duffy
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View article: When the Product Is You: The (Not So) Glamorous Life of an Influencer
When the Product Is You: The (Not So) Glamorous Life of an Influencer Open
Despite the seductive promises of freedom, flexibility and creative autonomy, influencer careers are beset with challenges and risks. Influencers’ status as independent contractors means they lack many of the safeguards associated with for…
View article: GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES ON PLATFORMS AND CULTURAL PRODUCTION
GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES ON PLATFORMS AND CULTURAL PRODUCTION Open
While digital platforms have reconfigured the institutions and practices of cultural production around the globe, current research is dominated by studies that take as their reference point the Anglo-American world--and, to a lesser extent…
View article: INDUSTRY TENSIONS: LABOR SUBJECTIVITIES AND SELF-REINVENTION IN PLATFORM WORK
INDUSTRY TENSIONS: LABOR SUBJECTIVITIES AND SELF-REINVENTION IN PLATFORM WORK Open
To move beyond the framework of platform labor as either exploitative or empowering, this panel considers intricate forms of self-reinvention within the realm of cultural work. Our inquiries into the labor subjectivities that emerge from p…
View article: Global perspectives on platforms and cultural production
Global perspectives on platforms and cultural production Open
Research on platforms and cultural production is dominated by studies that take the Anglo-American world and Northwestern Europe as their main points of reference. Central concepts in the field, consequently, bear the imprint of Western in…
View article: PLATFORMS AND THE PRECARITY OF CREATOR (IN)VISIBILITY
PLATFORMS AND THE PRECARITY OF CREATOR (IN)VISIBILITY Open
This panel examines the tension between visibility and invisibility in the platform-creator relationship with a focus on highly precarious areas of cultural production, including online sex workers, body activists, and LGBTQ+ content creat…
View article: Spaces of Negotiation: Analyzing Platform Power in the News Industry
Spaces of Negotiation: Analyzing Platform Power in the News Industry Open
This article develops an analytical framework to examine the contingent power relations between news organizations and platforms. Eschewing one-sided, monolithic perspectives on platform dominance, we instead theorize power as relational. …
View article: In/Visibility in Social Media Work: The Hidden Labor Behind the Brands
In/Visibility in Social Media Work: The Hidden Labor Behind the Brands Open
Despite the staggering uptick in social media employment over the last decade, this nascent category of cultural labor remains comparatively under-theorized. In this article, we contend that social media work is configured by a visibility …
View article: In/visibility in Social Media Work: The Hidden Labor Behind the Brands
In/visibility in Social Media Work: The Hidden Labor Behind the Brands Open
Despite the staggering uptick in social media employment over the last decade, this nascent category of cultural labor remains comparatively under-theorized. In this paper, we contend that social media work is configured by a visibility pa…
View article: ANALYZING PLATFORM POWER IN THE CULTURAL INDUSTRIES
ANALYZING PLATFORM POWER IN THE CULTURAL INDUSTRIES Open
Across cultures and contexts, digital platforms like YouTube, TikTok/Douyin, WeChat, and Spotify are fundamentally reshaping both the processes and products of cultural production—from music and news to entertainment and advertising. But, …
View article: Gendered Visibility on Social Media: Navigating Instagram’s Authenticity Bind
Gendered Visibility on Social Media: Navigating Instagram’s Authenticity Bind Open
Although the digital economy’s guiding logics of attention and visibility rouse social media users to put themselves out there, individuals experience digital visibility in profoundly uneven ways. For women, in particular, the public natur…
View article: Idols of Promotion: The Triumph of Self-Branding in an Age of Precarity
Idols of Promotion: The Triumph of Self-Branding in an Age of Precarity Open
By analyzing the “mass idols” (Lowenthal, 1944) of contemporary media culture, this study contributes to our understanding of popular communication, branding, and social media self-presentation. Leo Lowenthal, in his well-known analysis of…
View article: The Nested Precarities of Platformized Creative Labor
The Nested Precarities of Platformized Creative Labor Open
While metrics have long played an important, albeit fraught, role in the media and cultural industries, quantified indices of visibility—likes, favorites, subscribers, and shares—are indelibly cast as routes to professional success and sta…
View article: The Nested Precarities of Creative Labor on Social Media
The Nested Precarities of Creative Labor on Social Media Open
While metrics have long played an important, albeit fraught, role in the media and cultural industries, quantified indices of online visibility—likes, favorites, subscribers, and shares—have been indelibly cast as routes to professional su…
View article: “Fake” Femininity?: Gendered Authenticity Policing in Influencer Hateblogs
“Fake” Femininity?: Gendered Authenticity Policing in Influencer Hateblogs Open
Though social media influencers hold a coveted status in the popular imagination, their requisite career visibility opens them up to intensified public scrutiny and—more pointedly—networked hate and harassment. Key repositories of such cri…
View article: FRAMING THE GUIDES Transforming LibGuides Creation through Conceptual Integration with the ACRL Framework
FRAMING THE GUIDES Transforming LibGuides Creation through Conceptual Integration with the ACRL Framework Open
This chapter will discuss how one small liberal arts school utilized the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education, a year after it was filed, to build LibGuides as they adopted the software for the first time. The goal …
View article: POLICING "FAKE" FEMININITY: ANGER AND ACCUSATION IN INFLUENCER"HATEBLOG" COMMUNITIES
POLICING "FAKE" FEMININITY: ANGER AND ACCUSATION IN INFLUENCER"HATEBLOG" COMMUNITIES Open
While social media influencers are held up in the popular imagination as self-enterprising cultural tastemakers, their requisite career visibility opens them up to intensified public scrutiny and, consequently, networked hate and harassmen…
View article: A GOOD LIFE? CRITICAL FEMINIST APPROACHES TO INFLUENCER ECOLOGIES
A GOOD LIFE? CRITICAL FEMINIST APPROACHES TO INFLUENCER ECOLOGIES Open
Social media platforms are widely lauded as bastions for entrepreneurial self-actualisation and creative autonomy, offering an answer to historically exclusive and hierarchical creative industries as routes to employability and success. So…
View article: Studying Platforms and Cultural Production: Methods, Institutions, and Practices
Studying Platforms and Cultural Production: Methods, Institutions, and Practices Open
This introduction to the second special collection of articles on the platformization of the cultural industries foregrounds research methods and practices. Drawing from the 12 articles included in this collection, as well as the 14 articl…
View article: Platform Practices in the Cultural Industries: Creativity, Labor, and Citizenship
Platform Practices in the Cultural Industries: Creativity, Labor, and Citizenship Open
The rise of contemporary platforms—from GAFAM in the West to the “three kingdoms” of the Chinese Internet—is reconfiguring the production, distribution, and monetization of cultural content in staggering and complex ways. Given the nature …
View article: “Gaming the System”: Platform Paternalism and the Politics of Algorithmic Visibility
“Gaming the System”: Platform Paternalism and the Politics of Algorithmic Visibility Open
As the logic of data-driven metrification reconfigures various realms of social and economic life, cultural workers—from journalists and musicians to photographers and social media content creators—are pursuing online visibility in earnest…
View article: Idols of Promotion: The Triumph of Self-Branding in an Age of Precarity
Idols of Promotion: The Triumph of Self-Branding in an Age of Precarity Open
By analyzing the “mass idols” (Lowenthal, 1944) of contemporary media culture, this study contributes to our understanding of popular communication, branding, and social media self-presentation. Leo Lowenthal, in his well-known analysis of…
View article: Idols of Promotion: The Triumph of Self-Branding in an Age of Precarity
Idols of Promotion: The Triumph of Self-Branding in an Age of Precarity Open
By analyzing the “mass idols” (Lowenthal, 1944) of contemporary media culture, this study contributes to our understanding of popular communication, branding, and social media self-presentation. Leo Lowenthal, in his well-known analysis of…
View article: “You never really know who’s looking”: Imagined surveillance across social media platforms
“You never really know who’s looking”: Imagined surveillance across social media platforms Open
Social media users are routinely counseled to cultivate their online personae with acumen and diligence. But universal prescriptions for impression management may prove for vexing for college students, who confront oft-conflicting codes of…
View article: Librarians Connect to Self-Reflect: Collaboration Among Personal Librarian Coordinators at Different Institutions
Librarians Connect to Self-Reflect: Collaboration Among Personal Librarian Coordinators at Different Institutions Open
The coordinators of the Personal Librarian Program at two institutions, Sarah Lawrence College (SLC) and Fairfield University (Fairfield), started a dialogue about their respective programs. Through these discussions, they learned from one…
View article: Constructing the Platform-Specific Self-Brand: The Labor of Social Media Promotion
Constructing the Platform-Specific Self-Brand: The Labor of Social Media Promotion Open
With the widespread uptake of social media, discourses and practices of self-branding have become a pervasive feature of social and economic life. However, the way in which the digital self-brand gets reproduced across a sprawling social m…
View article: Mythologies of Creative Work in the Social Media Age: Fun, Free, and “Just Being Me”
Mythologies of Creative Work in the Social Media Age: Fun, Free, and “Just Being Me” Open
Over the past decade, work in the cultural sector has grown evermore precarious amid heightened competition, rampant insecurity, and the individualization of risk. Despite this, social media personalities—including bloggers, vloggers, and …
View article: “Facebook for Academics”: The Convergence of Self-Branding and Social Media Logic on Academia.edu
“Facebook for Academics”: The Convergence of Self-Branding and Social Media Logic on Academia.edu Open
Given widespread labor market precarity, contemporary workers—especially those in the media and creative industries—are increasingly called upon to brand themselves. Academics, we contend, are experiencing a parallel pressure to engage in …
View article: ‘Facebook for Academics’: The Convergence of Self-Branding and Social Media Logic on Academia.edu
‘Facebook for Academics’: The Convergence of Self-Branding and Social Media Logic on Academia.edu Open
Given widespread labor market precarity, contemporary workers—especially those in the media and creative industries— are increasingly called upon to brand themselves. Academics, we contend, are experiencing a parallel pressure to engage in…