New media after the Dot.com bust

Abstract

In spite of its designation as part of the “cultural economy”, New Media work was depicted as free‐floating, unimpeded by stuffy national political‐economic regulations. Studies of New Media workers before and after the Dot.com speculative bubble, however, indicate that New Media work was and is influenced by national policy environments. In the United States, New Media work is carried out primarily by independent contractors. The use of a multi‐skilled contract workforce has increased following the decline in labor demand. In Sweden, New Media workers turned to unions following the downturn to deal with rising unemployment. Germany represents a middle ground case with a largely non‐unionized workforce that is, however, influenced by collective industrial relations institutions and norms regarding employer roles. These divergent paths suggest that national policy continues to play a role in shaping work, even in international cultural industries.

Keywords:

• New Media
• industrial relations
• cultural industries

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the King's College London Management Centre research seminar and Andy Pratt for comments, and Michelle Mulcahy for research assistance.

Notes

Although they differ from one another methodologically and with respect to some of their central questions, these studies are comparable in many respects. They examine New Media work and its workforce in major urban centers and recognize the centrality of project‐based work to New Media production. As a consequence, they help illuminate differences in how New Media firms and workers confront the challenges of skill development, and career and industry sustainability. The analysis in this study of the post Dot.com era in the United States draws primarily on research in New York City. While there are differences among American centers – San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington, DC and New York – the features we emphasize distinguish American patterns from those in other national New Media workforces.

This understanding of the role of structuring institutions in creative work draws on Giddens as applied in Sydow and Staber (2002) and Staber and Sydow (2002).

Referring to New Media workers as “workers” is, in fact, a bit misleading because it masks the variation that exists within the New Media workforce. As New Media evolves, a skilled entrepreneurial group is separating itself from the lower skilled “newbies” (i.e., new entries) into the labor market.

This is possibly due to the enhanced ability of European youth to combine part‐time work with formal education and training. State financing of higher education, support for off‐site training provided for in collective bargaining agreements, and mandated limits on work hours would all contribute to opportunities to learn from others rather than to teach oneself. A European study of how youth (15 to 29 years of age) are responding to the challenges of work that is increasingly knowledge‐based indicates that, in 1997, 68% of German youth chose to combine part‐time work and education and training (European Commission 1997).

These are more likely to be men than women since, at least in the United States, female New Media workers are less likely than men to be married or have children (Batt et al. 2001).

The popularity of the “Dilbert” cartoon series attests to the perception of American workers that the conduct of work is increasingly out of the employee's control.

Those New Media workers with longer‐term employment contracts have attitudes similar to their more entrepreneurial colleagues. They were stopped in their mobility by the downturn, which effectively ended the proliferation of opportunities for new and better job contracts (van Jaarsveld 2004). While they have jobs, they realize that they do not have job security and worry about maintaining their skills and marketability.