: Venture Labor The Ris ks of Work in Soc ial Media

Gina NeffDepartment of Communication

University of Washington

Venture Labor / ven’ tur •lab’ur/

1. employees’ investments of time or capital in their companies

2. variable describing extent to which people shoulder financial risks

3. corollary to venture capital

“There’s really no downside to stock

options.”

Venture Labor Work & the Burden of Ris k in MediaIndus tries

"I don't know if it's my business acumen or sheer luck

— but I survived the dotcom crash."

“ ’ It s really up to you to , manage that ris k to

take precautions ”

Venture Labor Work & the Burden of Ris k in MediaIndus tries

Venture Labor Work & the Burden of Ris k in MediaIndus tries

“But the big risk for us was what could arise was [we were] selling our property. But that’s not unique to a dot-com. We’re selling it. They could buy it and fire us. They could buy it and make it suck. All that stuff.”

And now a shameless plug

•Which Ideas & Platforms will fly?

•“Nobody knows Anything”

Speculative Labor

•Work before the pitch

•Falling barrier to distribution

•Changing barriers to entry

Ramifications for Labor

Ramifications for Labor

•From unionized work to speculative labor

•Difference in barriers to distribution, means of cultural production

•Permanent change in career pathways

•How labor gets paid

Ramifications for Media

Ramifications for Media

• Risks pushed back to audience and creators

• Expanding what Becker calls the “art world”

• Intensification of tension between owners of ideas versus creators of ideas

• Audience attention as teams of testers

Thank you

Gina Neffgneff@ uw.edu