Communication as Labor and Network Users as Laborers

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.