Looking for a possible positive within the welter of creative-class layoffs triggered by the economic crisis? Mark Deuze*
points us toward what’s being termed a “
shadow media,” in which layoffees bind together in informal networks (Deuze locates several Facebook groups) to commiserate and, perhaps in the near future, collaborate. It makes sense, really: the problem with so many media companies nowadays is their instability (often regarded by the companies themselves as “flexibility”), and thus their inability to make long-term goals and/or plans within the ever-shifting sands of the digital/online/”new media” realm. This leads to employees trying their best to perform (and often doing great work), but having to adhere to a constantly changing metric (if one exists at all), and losing their jobs as a result. With this becoming the norm for media jobs,
why not shoot the shit with likeminded folks over Facebook or Twitter, throw some ideas together, and start making stuff with the software you already own and the talent you already possess?** (Of course, this is given that you have the time to spare, while hustling freelance to pay your rent). Deuze, like anyone else, has no idea how this might shake out, but it’s clear that this segment of the population is skyrocketing in numbers right now, and though they’re off the grid at the moment, they could, possibly, result in some interesting market competition in a year or two.
*Full disclosure: he was a professor of mine last semester.
**A somewhat similar thing happened to me in late 2002. The video production company I was shooting and editing for–which seemed to have a totally solid contract with Discovery Networks–started hemorraging money, which the higher-ups cynically blamed on 9/11, but which was really the result of horrible accounting practices. I jumped ship quickly, taking a teaching job at a college (there’s an industry that never will go out of business), but all the while retaining a friendly relationship with one freelance producer. Ever since, I’ve been using my own equipment to edit any- and everything she brings my way, when I have the time (usually summers and breaks from school), for a huge and incredibly wealthy corporate client which will remain nameless, but which loves the fact that we charge a fraction of the rate as do companies with high overheads, and probably has no idea that we edit much of the stuff at a suburban kitchen table.
Thanks for the link. I’m a recent college grad trying to get one of those ever-disappearing media jobs. It seems like the Shadow Media thing is just an example of what we’re told all through college – network, meet people and network some more.
This article couldn’t have popped up at a more serendipitous time for me as an illustration of why it’s time for me to go. I’ve just about had it. Not only are people in my line of work having to jump through more and more hoops (FLAMING HOOPS!) just to get a smaller paycheck, but the goalposts are ever-shifting and clients are expecting more and more to garner eyeballs and eardrums, as if this is a definitive measure of success. And to add even more fun, they want reams of paper reports about outdated shit that means NOTHING to pass along to their clueless superiors. The music industry, in particular, needs to get a fucking clue. I am so outta this soon.
-signed, soon to be ex-promo whore