How much of this unpaid labor is just par for the course for all cultural industries? Dancers, actors, and novelists, for example, have traditionally performed unpaid labor to break in to the field. How can we best analyze this phenomenon not as a new development but as part of continuing process of how cultural industries function?

Of course it’s impossible to quantify the amount of unpaid labor or the breakdown of female/male ratios, so that is not what I’m suggesting we do. I am suggesting that our analysis of digital labor should also be careful about attributing phenomenon (such as unpaid labor) primarily to gender or medium since it is prevalent among all. It’s the old correlation/causation problem!

I interviewed a small number of male bloggers and have heard about comparable work with sports bloggers (by T.C. Corrigan). However, my critique stems more from the ways in which gender is constructed (both industrially and historically—specifically women’s work as unwaged) than numbers of female digital laborers versus males. But the short answer: yes, I believe males can be aspirational laborers too!

Have you considered the possibility that some of these digital laborers are “currying favor” with brands precisely because that’s where the opportunities are? Legacy media outlets (journalism, TV, film, etc) have very high barriers to entry for outsiders, whereas advertisers are constantly trawling for “influencers” among their target markets, and so brands may offer these digital laborers more opportunities to grow audiences. Sometimes advertisers are more willing to experiment with new talent than content companies!

Were you able to find a comparable group of male social media influencers working with brands to suss out how much of this is actually gendered and how much is new media labor conditions affecting all potential social media influencers?