The Prospect of Labor in Cyberspace

This chapter outlines the entire research's background, objectives, and significance. It elaborates on the primary research subjects and issues and conducts a comprehensive analysis and critique of the literature in the relevant field. Building on this foundation, it establishes the research direction, constructs the framework, clarifies relevant theories and concepts, and identifies key issues to be addressed. It emphasizes the academic and practical value of the research and lays the groundwork for the subsequent sections of the study.

This chapter delves into Dan Schiller's exploration of the relationship between communication and labor and examines the productive labor attributes of communication. By establishing communication as a form of labor, the chapter explores the laborer status of network users, employing Marx's perspectives to analyze their positioning as laborers. It scrutinizes the subjectivity, attributes, methods, tools, and types of labor among network users. The chapter analyzes various Marxist perspectives on network user labor's nature and role. It evaluates the “blind spot” debate from the standpoint of network user labor, paving the way for further research on network user labor conditions and compensation.

This chapter first explores the liberation of users’ labor space under the empowerment of network technology, aiming to understand the capacity of network technology to create this new labor space and the extent of liberation achieved by users’ labor in cyberspace. Based on this, the chapter examines how network media as capitalists conceal their power, the logic behind this hidden power, and how they produce power. Finally, the chapter delves into the fundamental logic system: through studying the control methods employed by network media as capitalists—including technical, spatial, economic, and cultural capital control—analyzing how network users’ labor production processes revert to the power control system of network media. This chapter effectively responds to the logical framework of “technology and power relations,” as indicated in the book’s subtitle, laying a solid foundation for subsequent research.

This chapter studied the role of network users in the network information ecosystem and explored their position in developing the network economy. Building on this, it examined the value of network users’ labor in promoting network economic growth. The chapter focused on the roles and labor value of network users in the network information ecosystem and network economy, which is essential for studying the topic of “network users’ labor and compensation.”

This chapter has conducted a detailed study of the new changes in the mode of production in cyberspace and its essence. It has compared the output of information in cyberspace with the production of industrial products. At the same time, this chapter has defined three types of products produced directly by users in cyberspace: information products, behavioral products of users in cyberspace, and user products, and has analyzed their respective characteristics, values, use values, exchange values, and prices. To further reveal the labor status of network users in cyberspace, this chapter has also studied the labor relations between network users and network media in cyberspace. In general, the discussion in this chapter helps to reveal more profoundly the labor status of network users in cyberspace.

Based on the analysis of the content and material basis of labor reproduction in traditional labor, this chapter studies the content and material basis of labor reproduction for network users. Based on this, the chapter explores issues such as the changes in the way network users reproduce their labor force and the transfer of the costs of reproducing network user labor. In addition, the chapter also studies the methods and processes of network user labor’s conscription by network media. Through the research mentioned above, we have found that under the empowerment of the new communication technology, network media rely on technological and other powers to imperceptibly change the way network users reproduce their labor force, successfully transferring the costs of reproducing network user labor to network users or (and) their relatives and friends. Network media have achieved the conscription of network users’ labor force in a more concealed manner, shedding the heavy burdens of compensation and social welfare that must be borne in traditional labor. This chapter is another effective discussion of the labor situation of network users, laying a solid foundation for the following research on the remuneration of network user labor.

This chapter has studied the situation of economic compensation for laborers in OGC, PGC, and UGC, and on this basis, it has discussed the exploitation of various types of internet users by network media. The research has found that laborers in OGC can receive compensation similar to individuals in the industrial society. As more professional workers among internet users, those in PGC can also receive certain economic compensation for the production of their highly valuable original products. However, apart from a few PGC laborers, the vast number of UGC laborers have not received any economic compensation, and the economic wealth they create has been entirely transferred to the hands of network media without compensation. Laborers of various types of internet content are being exploited, with UGC workers suffering the most severe and complete form of exploitation, leading to the emergence of a “new working class” and new poverty issues. The network relations of production have significantly impacted the development of network productive forces. Therefore, it is necessary to provide reasonable economic compensation to internet users to adjust network production relations, stir the still waters of the knowledge economy, and promote the development of the network economy. This chapter provides an in-depth discussion on the economic compensation for the labor of internet users, which is significant for revealing the hidden exploitative relationships within cyberspace and exploring the issue of labor compensation in the digital realm.

This chapter has studied the transformation of human production and consumption purposes in the context of continuously improving material living standards and increasing leisure time due to technological empowerment. Based on this, it has conducted an in-depth discussion on the new forms of remuneration—social capital, entertainment, and other non-economic rewards—spawned by this background. The research has found that human needs are moving toward higher levels of respect and self-actualization, and the purposes of human production and consumption have shifted from the issues of food and clothing in agricultural societies, housing and transportation in industrial societies to the production and consumption of meaning. Therefore, the rewards for human labor have also broken through the framework of economic remuneration and expanded into the fields of material and symbolic rewards. Since the vast majority of Internet users are well-educated, have a lot of leisure time, and aspire to a life of self-fulfillment, they still compete to enter the cyberspace for labor despite suffering from severe economic exploitation. Their purpose is to obtain a series of non-economic rewards, such as expanding social relations, enhancing social prestige, engaging in social activities, and experiencing entertainment and emotional experiences. However, the non-economic wealth created by Internet users is also exploited by network media, mainly because with their technological and capital advantages, network media can still obtain the non-economic wealth created by Internet users without compensation. This chapter is another in-depth discussion on the remuneration of network users’ labor, which plays an important role in revealing the mystery behind network users’ enthusiasm for labor.

This chapter has conducted research on the labor paradigm of online users, suggesting that network media has become embedded within the economic infrastructure, and the labor of online users has evolved into a labor paradigm that aligns with the new form of network capital. Additionally, the chapter has made judgments on the future direction of online user labor, predicting that the degree of technical control over online user labor will further intensify, the SOHO group among online users will become a new trend, the OGC community from traditional media will become a mobile workforce in the cyberspace, and economic compensation that fits the online labor market will gradually become widespread.