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Cited by 228Political Economy and MarxismCultural Studies and PostmodernismDigital Economy and Work Transformation

The DOI matches its DataCite record; 15 of the 16 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

The Valorization of Surveillance: Towards a Political Economy of Facebook

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Cohen, Nicole·2008·University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries
DOI 10.7275/democratic-communique.290
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Abstract

Much excitement surrounds Facebook, the social networking site based on user-generated content that has attracted 64 million active users since its inception in 2004. This paper begins to outline a political economy of Facebook in an attempt to draw attention to the underlying economic relations that structure the website, and the way in which the site fits into larger patterns of contemporary capitalist development. Although Web 2.0 has presented a shift away from “old” top-down media models, there remains continuity through change: Facebook continues familiar models of extensive commodification, with surveillance playing a key role in this process. The emerging reliance on general intellect and free labour for the purpose of capital accumulation does represent a move away from a more passive conception of the audience commodity, yet it demonstrates the continuous march of capitalism into cyberspace under post-Fordist conditions.

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Research works printed but not linked: 6

  1. Johnston, Garth. 2007. Comcast site teams with Facebook. Broadcasting & Cable 137(7): 16.
  2. Kessler, Andy. 2007. The weekend interview with Mark Zuckerberg: Network so- lutions. Wall Street Journal, March 24.
  3. Lazzarato, Maurizio. 1996. Immaterial labour. In Radical Thought in Italy: A po- tential politics eds. Paolo Virno and Michael Hardt, 133-147. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
  4. Lazzarato, Maurizio. 2004. From capital-labour to capital-life. Ephemera 4(3): 187- 208.
  5. Liedtke, Michael. 2007. Is Facebook the next big deal? Associated Press, February 23.
  6. Zuckerberg, Mark. 2007. Keynote speech delivered at the f8 conference at the San Francisco Design Centre. Available at http://developers.facebook.com/ videos.php (accessed 2/16/2008).

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Metadata

Authors
Cohen, N.
Corresponding author
Cohen, Nicole
Venue
University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries
Publisher
University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries
Published
2008
Volume
22
Issue
1
Pages
5-5
DOI
10.7275/democratic-communique.290
OpenAlex
W1569869845
Cited by
228
References
16
Citations by year
2026: 1 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 11 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 19 · 2020: 7 · 2019: 8 · 2018: 15 · 2017: 10 · 2016: 23 · 2015: 31 · 2014: 22 · 2013: 26 · 2012: 25
FWCI
28.93
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Scholarworks (University of Massachusetts Amherst) (submittedVersion, public-domain)
  • University of Massachusetts (UMass) Amherst
  • Democratic Communiqué
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Political Economy and Marxism
  • Social Sciences › Communication › Cultural Studies and Postmodernism
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Digital Economy and Work Transformation
Keywords
Facebook, surveillance capitalism, commodification, Web 2.0, general intellect, free labor, capital accumulation, post-Fordism, audience commodification, user-generated content

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