"Digital Labor":Social Media Users In The Perspective Of Communication And Political Economy

In the information society,the labor forms of the information industry has become more concealed,mainly manifest in the increasingly blurred boundary between social labor and entertainment,the "admonitionse effect" from self value and self expression,as well as the media content "co-creation" caused by media integration.Self media companies are increasingly relying on users' contributions to content,and users are beginning to learn how to integrate their content and platform to create interaction.The tension between companies and users promotes the development of the Internet,especially social media.This paper,mainly taking Sina micro-blog,WeChat and NetEase cloud music as examples,analyzes the digital behavior of social media users through the research path of the political economy of communication and combines the theory of "use and satisfaction",probes into the underlying capital logic behind internet services.This paper consists of five chapters.The first and second chapter are mainly about the current research status of the political economy of communication and social media and it's users,discuss the new research direction of the political economy of communication in the new media environment,and propose to use the political economy of communication to study social media and social media users;the third chapter is base on the behavior motivation of media users,takes WeChat update records,Micro-Blog,Quick Hand and other social media user agreements as examples,reveals the fact that social media users transfer part of their freedom for convenience.The fourth chapter further explores the hidden exploitation behind the internet resource enjoyment from three perspectives of "Commercialization" of personal privacy data? "Commercialization" of individual leisure time and "commercialization" of personal social capital,to reveal the "digital labor" phenomenon of social media users;the fifth chapter uses Marx's theory of surplus value to analyze how "digital labor" is free,and draws the conclusion that "user" is "labor".