Historical Review and Theoretical Thinking on Platforms, Labor and Media Studies

半个世纪后的今天,传播学语境下的劳动议题不再是达拉斯·斯迈兹笔下的“盲点”,而是成为“热点”。但是当下以平台化劳动为主的研究成果虽然丰硕,却也存在框架单一和概念混乱等问题。本研究尝试从媒介发展史的角度探究劳动形态与媒介发展形态之间的关系,以此理解平台化劳动的特点并尝试突破当下劳动研究“控制—反抗”的二元理论框架。传播学语境下的劳动生产伴随着不同的媒介技术发展而呈现出不同的样态;与此同时,劳动类别随着媒介的发展呈现“叠加状态”,即前一媒介发展阶段的劳动样态会延续并以新的形式在当今媒介技术生态下继续存在。现阶段平台化劳动的具身性、数据化、关系性特征正是媒介与劳动历史互动而成的结果。传播学视野下的数字劳动研究需要更多地观照媒介技术发展的底层逻辑并增加历史和对比的视野。 The labor issue in current communication studies is no longer the “blind spot” described by Dallas Smythe half a century ago, but has become a “hot spot”. However, though fruitful, current platform-based labor studies suffer from issues such as insuffiency of theoretical framework and conceptual confusion. This article explores the relationship between labor types and media forms in a historical perspective so as to understand the characteristics of platform-based labor. Based on this, it also tries to break through the “control-resistance” binary framework in labor stdueis. Labor production in the context of communication studies takes on different forms with the development of different media technologies; meanwhile, labor categories present superposition with the development of media. That is to say, the labor patterns in earlier media stage continue to exist in new media technology ecosystem. The embodied, data-based and relational characteristics of platformbased labor are the result of the interactions between media and labor. Digital labor research in communication studies needs to pay more attention to media scenes as well as historical and comparative perspective.