Venture Labor| Freelancing as the Good Life?

Abstract

This article asks how venture labor manifests in the work of producing journalism on a freelance basis in a time of labor precarity. While freelancing offers journalists much-desired flexibility and autonomy, it is also a way for corporations to offload the risk of producing media onto individuals, infusing freelance work with instability. Freelancers earn low wages and face increasing pressure to work for no pay, have limited social protections, and are presented with exploitative contracts for their work. In the face of competing risks and rewards, collective action holds potential for improving freelancers’ conditions.