TV talk shows extract free creative labor from social media users

Evidence

In the age of social media, it is not uncommon for TV talk shows to mine the creative labor of internet users as fodder for prime-time television. Shows like The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon’s “Hashtag Fail” segment regularly call upon viewers to share jokes via a dedicated hashtag, while others like Jimmy Kimmel Live!‘s “I told my kids I ate all their Halloween candy” annual video challenge invite viewers to specially stage and film pranks on young children. While both are popular examples of traditional media’s solicitation of the free and willing labor of social media users to produce content for their shows, The Ellen DeGeneres Show is unrivalled in grooming otherwise brief brushes with fame on the internet into sustained and viable traditional celebrities. — Crystal Abidin, Internet Celebrity, 185

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to digital labor scholarship and Marx’s free-labor debates; pairs with the idea of audience commodification. — connects to: Broadcast talk shows harvest unpaid user content through hashtag prompts — Crystal Abidin, Internet Celebrity: Understanding Fame…, 185; Platforms extract free labor from users in exchange for recognition and perks; Social media participation constitutes unpaid labor from which platforms extract value — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 505
• SHARE: Good for someone studying the Ellen Show’s influencer factory model specifically.

Broader Connections

• Broadcast talk shows harvest unpaid user content through hashtag prompts #exemplifies (0.92) — Crystal Abidin, Internet Celebrity, 185
• Social media participation constitutes unpaid labor from which platforms extract value #expands (0.88) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 505
• Platforms extract free labor from users in exchange for recognition and perks #expands (0.85)