The Impact of Digital Technology on Media Workers: Life Has Completely Changed. Digital Labor: Workers, Authors, Citizens

 

In researching articles and videos that explicitly speak about technology and how it has changed the work of communicators, I stumbled across Author Lisa Lareau's research paper. The paper provides thought-provoking insight into the impact that digital technology has on media workers and communication professionals. It includes valid points and highlights ways working journalists and other communication professionals can remain relevant and keep up with the demand caused by technology. Lareau talks about ways media workers can “win the battles against layoffs, declining wages, and stress” by implementing collective action. She boldly tells of the side effects or the downside of technology and its impact on those who work in the media industry. For example, she mentions how citizen journalism is an enabling factor to the decrease in the need for real reporters and photographers, emphasizing that “the growth in numbers of amateur columnists and opinion writers is staggering''(Lareau, 2010).  Lareau also points out the need for speed notions and how everyone is in a race to be the first on the scene and the first to produce content and get it out to the audiences. As she highlights the feeding the need for speed idea, she poses a few questions that include: “can everyone be expected to function in such a super-speedy environment? And will the main criteria for success be speed, with content and context a distant second” (Lareau, 2010)? Media workers and communication professionals have to withhold a specific skill set in order to thrive in today’s society. Lareau reminds us that those very skill sets are valued and essential in order to fight against the impact of digital technology on media workers and the fight against citizen journalism where “everyone can do everything, from anywhere, and for free if possible” (Lareau, 2010).

References

Lareau, L. (2010). The Impact of digital technology on media workers: Life has completely changed. Digital labor: Workers, authors, citizens.