In a new media environment where audience participation has grown rapidly, the practice of crowdsourcing has also inevitably grown and is now widely used. As this video explains the idea behind crowdsourcing is to “harness collective resources to solve problems and produce things,” (Sauter, 2014) creating an environment where there is a is a "linking of symmetrical participation and amateur production" (Fuchs) 

Cloud Labour is one such example. It functions on the premise of an on demand workforce to perform a variety of tasks for a small payment. Users are able to choose which tasks they wish to perform and by doing so generate new content. Like much of new media, there is a blurring of the traditional roles of producer and consumer and consequently crowd sourcing can be seen as a “manifestation of a larger trend towards a greater democratisation of commerce” (Benkler 2006, 15) This democratisation and participation creates an affordance of freedom of expression and a far more liberal media environment that often leaves the producers with a gain in their productive output and a sense of contribution.

A recent example of cloud labour and one that I found interesting given the seriousness of the subject is the search for the missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH 370. DigitalGlobe, a company that operates commercial imaging satellites, recently made public photos of the overwhelmingly large search area and appealed for people to “comb through images in the hope of locating something of interest.” (Ralston 2014) This is a good example of the positive nature of crowd sourcing as it provides the worker with a sense of contribution, more so than regular crowdsourcing. Being an object of such public interest and also one with an emotional element, the worker would be left with a more positive sense of contribution.

However, many people believe that crowdsourcing and cloud labour is simply exploitation by another name. Fuchs states that “corporations and their logic dominate social media and the internet” and have turned it into a “predominantly capitalist” entity. This is tied in with the idea of surplus value and the disparity between what a worker gets paid for creating a product, and what a company sells the product for. Through having people contribute their skills and resources to products without being paid “corporations reduce their investment costs and labour costs, jobs are destroyed, and consumers who work for free are extremely exploited. They produce surplus value that is appropriated and turned into profit by corporations without paying wages.” (Fuchs 2014, 106) Consequently it can be seen that the democratic aspects of new media are compromised and instead it is a “stratified reality that is shaped by structures of domination.” (Fuchs 2014 104) 

Whether, cloud labour is positive or exploitative, is not a simple answer, however, it is clear that it must be used in such a way that "builds an environment that cultivates humanity." (Zittrain. 2014) 

Reference List

Fuchs, Christian, (2013). Chapter 5 : The Power and Political Economy of Social Media. In Fuchs, Christian, Social media : a critical introduction, (pp.97 - 125). London, UK: Sage Publications. 

van Dijck, Jose (2013). ’You have one identity’: performing the self on facebook and linkedIn.,Media, Culture & Society 35 (2) pp.199-215. 

Crowdsourcing.org 2012. "Crowdsourcing and Crowdfunding Explained" Youtube video posted March 15 Accessed 27/3/2014 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-38uPkyH9vI 

Sauter, Theresa L. 2014. kcb206 Internet, Self & Beyond Week 4 lecture. Accessed 27 March 2014. https://lecturecapture.qut.edu.au/ess/echo/presentation/3f75f7d4-0dd5-4c27-87e1-1163805f5881?ec=true