Working with Passion: Digital Media Specialist as Precarious Worker in the Digital Age

Abstract

This paper addresses issues the global concern of uncertainties of digital creative workers, emphasizing Indonesian case. This paper argues creative digital workers in digital media industry deal with uncertainty in "atypical," "contingent," "temporary," "informal," and, in particular, "precarious" settings. This research will provide arguments about new forms of labour exploitation in the era of “user-generated content” and “prosumption”. This paper's primary theoretical contribution is to clarify the precarious nature of labor for digital labor in communication and media organizations, with a focus on creative workers in Yogyakarta and Jakarta. Additionally, this study will demonstrate how staff members in various communication and media companies routinely work under deadline pressure, work remotely, have short-term contracts, and participate in hustle cult practices. This study used qualitative and in-depth interview studies to look ten people at the lives of digital content officers in a social media specialist (as new media professionals) who produce digital content in social media, managing content for influencers, internet celebrities, and corporations. This research took place between January and June 2022, and it raised fundamental concerns regarding how these industries develop the rhetoric of flexibility, autonomy, and informality.