On optimization: Cultural labor in platform capitalism

Abstract

To labor in platform capitalism is to optimize. Based on 66 semi-structured interviews conducted over 8 years with data scientists, software engineers, and content creators at BuzzFeed and Upworthy, this article conceptualizes optimization as a mode of algorithmic labor that emerges in response to the platformization of cultural production, distinguishing between three principal modes of social media optimization: presentational optimization, content optimization, and self-optimization. Through a detailed examination of BuzzFeed and Upworthy’s optimization practices, I argue that in platform capitalism media workers come to act, think, and labor like software engineers rather than journalists, editors, or other traditional categories of media work.

Keywords

Algorithms BuzzFeed media labor optimization platform capitalism Upworthy

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