The thought that it takes ten years for the mind to master a skill or discipline is at first somewhat daunting. However, with greater reflection it starts to make more sense and is somewhat relieving.

As mid semester breaks approach I’m often plagued with a fear that my skills aren’t sufficient or that I’m no knowledgeable enough to be an accomplished worker within the media industry. When considering it takes ten years for me to master my skills in a set discipline I have merely started my journey. This relief was also brought about by the piece’s discussion of education being life long. As I enter the industry my knowledge and skill set will continue to grow either diversifying or honing in on a particular role/practice.

I am also constantly drawing information from other areas of knowledge. Whether I’m reading, watching or listening, I’m constantly consuming information. Each of these things however unconnected and disparate, are building my own unique understanding of the world. These sources are forming my own taste and unique way of understanding and expressing.

The importance of compassion and the ability to harbour mutual respect is something that typically needs to be considered more within education. As a story teller this is central to my work. The human connection of content is paramount and as media becomes more decentralised, content needs to apply to various audiences. Conversely, as the piece points out, we mustn’t lose our ability to connect on a local or regional basis. This is linked to the demand for local content that reflects each community’s individual tastes and values. As content is easily accessible globally, peoples need lies in content that connects them on a cultural level. Content that audiences can see themselves reflected in.

Increased Speed

Speed creates slowness. It is only in contrast, to a newer, quicker speed, that existing speeds are perceived as being inadequately slow. Slowness was desired and sought out when it ceased to be the only option. It’s favourable, in that it provides people a greater duration for which to experience life and particular moments. It has become a countermovement to the rapid lifestyle that is demanded of us.   

The Paradox of the Smart Phone.

Smart Phones allow us to save time with their infinite apps and features. Conversely, they also manage to consume our time endlessly with other features we never used to interact with such as Facebook and mobile games. The smartphone also encourages instant responses to email and reminds users of the immediacy of work. Workers are unable to remove themselves from the work sphere or the potential of it interfering with social or leisure time. As ease of access increases, so too does the expectation of quicker responses to emails and messages.

The same pressures apply to our increased use of laptops and their potential to keep us continuously connected to work. Cloud storage and online documents ensure that work can constantly be accessed in its decentralised nature. Work now has the potential to be connected to from numerous devices, regardless of geographic location. Similarly, notifications remind us of progress to documents or changes to cloud storage. Now multiple people are able to work simultaneously on same document, collaboratively contributing and editing. No longer is creation of content staggered, with specific aspects handled by an equally specific person or team. Instead collaboration is more holistic with various individuals contributing to various stages of production/work.      

Deadlines

With quicker and more sophisticated technology also comes tighter work deadlines. Often these deadlines are near impossible and to be meet them requires rejection of leisure and sleep.  The constant presence of deadlines and our inability to meet them lends itself to people ignoring them until the very last minute. Preferencing working in adrenaline fuelled bursts of creation. Another aspect of the ever constant deadline is that rather than having designated work time we now integrate work into our weekends and social time. Work and social life have blended and now coexist. Deadlines now transcend the work or educational environment, eating into our own time due to the technology that keeps us connected.

Ashton, D 2015, ‘Making Media Workers: Contesting Film and Television Industry Career Pathways’, Television & New Media, vol. 16, no. 3, pp. 275-294.

This article provides an analysis of the role of the runner as an entry-level route into film and television production. Throughout Ashton refers to existing studies, situating his work within a body of existing research. This article is a study conducted on a number of students working within the industry in the runner position and also those currently undertaking higher education courses. Providing scope to the collected data Ashton employs anecdotal evidence from professionals that began work as runners before ascending the traditional production hierarchy. The first part of the article discusses runners in relation to industries production cultures whilst also addressing the labour market conditions. In the subsequent three parts, the focus is upon the desirable characteristics and dispositions associated with working as a runner alongside analysis of the student interviews. A great deal of emphasis is placed upon the varied and often competing perspectives upon careers pathways provided by the students. This articles proved to be useful as a means of analysing the alternative to working as a freelancer. There are numerous similarities with the role of runner and that of the freelance media worker including job insecurity and the tendency for some work to go unpaid. There are also vast differences, namely the fact that a runner has a clear position within a production hierarchy and that they answer those directly above them. The article is useful for analysing various ways that media graduates can find work in the media industry beside becoming a freelance worker. The analysis provided by this study is somewhat limited by its specificity to Britain. It might be of benefit to investigate whether this trend is consistent across other nation’s media industries and in particular in Australia.

Dunscombe, R 2013, ‘The past, the present, and the future’, Screen Education, vol. 72, pp. 1-5.   

Hamilton, C 2011, ‘The Exposure Economy’, Overland, no. 202, pp. 88-94.

Hamilton provides an overview of the position of freelance writers within Australia’s media industry. Her contention is that although the digital revolution in publishing and communication has liberated writers from their struggles with the monopoly structure of production and consumption, the work offered by the internet is no more independent of capitalist processes than traditional counterparts. Hamilton seeks to identify the true worth of working for exposure and whether this is sufficient for people in relation to sustaining a career. Although the article is particularly focused upon writers, the practise of working for exposure is widespread and commonplace for other freelance media workers.  The Article is quite critical of the practice even discussing its publications use of the model for its website. This inclusion illuminates how widespread and the transparent the practise is, particularly in relation to digital content. Rather than referring to any studies or other journal articles, the piece instead focuses upon anecdotal evidence, quoting writers that have worked in this fashion. There is also the utilisation of some statistics complied by the Australian Bureau of statistics. However, the figures quoted were from 2007 and with the rapid technological progress in the last nine years these figures may be vastly different, even in 2011 when the article was first published. Hamilton concludes that the absence of organisation and regulation in freelance work is both the cause and the outcome of its individualisation, with working hours and conditions largely beyond scrutiny, and inequities that are routinely personalised and internalised. Although not the entirety of the article is relevant to the whole industry, this closing statement is consistent with many other articles that discuss freelance workers.

Ronalds, P 2010, ‘In the Industry: On the Job: The Case for Industry Placements’, Screen Education, vol. 59, pp. 36-39.

In order for a media industry to be fruitful and for those working within it to feel content, an equilibrium between traditional hierarchical business and freelance work arrangements needs to be found. This would be inclusive of fairer work arrangements for those working as freelancers, including financial security. Conversely, those working within larger production companies and business will have more freedom in how they structure work around their lives. This equilibrium would be specific to each individual industry and fluid to allow for changes over time or financial downturn. True utopia would be achieved once freelancers felt a sense of security and those working for large companies were given far more agency in how they managed their workload. Unfortunately, industries are far too complex for this to (probably) ever come to fruition. Instead we have to hope that through research, regulation and shifting attitudes toward workers that we slowly progress towards this utopia.

It would be impossible as a media professional not to identify with the Lobato and Thomas’ closing remarks that we all wish to exhibit the freedom of a Freelancer but with the security of someone working for a larger company. Particularly approaching the end of my degree I’ve thought extensively about how I might structure my career and the goals that I should set myself. I’m draw to the idea of working a number of roles both as a freelance creator but also fulfilling a role in a larger media company for financial stability. I do acknowledge that these aspirations are likely to change just as much as the industry I will be working within will.

Ertel, M, Pech, E, Siegrist, J, Ullsperger, P & Von Dem Knesebeck, O 2005, ‘Adverse psychosocial working conditions and subjective health in freelance media workers’, Work & Stress, vol. 19, no. 3, pp.293-299

Utilising an existing methodology, with some changes, this study seeks to identify the the associations of work stress with subjective health in freelance workers. The study takes the form of a previously tested questionnaire that was mailed to members of the union of media workers, mainly in the region of Munich Germany. Working from an existing questionnaire ensured that the research situated itself within a body of investigation which have documented associations of effort-reward imbalance at work with self-rated health. However, this study was unique in that it focused upon freelance workers.  The questionnaire was remodelled to ensure it was specific to the role of freelance workers rather than those working in traditional business models. Although consistent results were drawn from this study, the incredibly low response rate of questionnaires means that this study only accounts for a small portion of the industry. Without comparable studies, it is hard to ascertain the bias of these results. All of these concerns were acknowledged in the article and possible areas of further research were proposed. Ultimately the study tested distinct hypotheses that centred around workload, commitment and reward in relation to worker’s subjective health. The findings demonstrated strong associations of effort-reward imbalance with poor subjective health in men and, to a lesser extent, in women. This poor subjective health was linked to a greater amount of stress due to job instability. Situated with the broader context of the Freelance Media Worker this article proves to key starting point into looking at the wellbeing and lifestyle of these workers. Although conducted on a very specific group of Freelance workers this article provides a starting point to compare and relate further studies and writing on workers’ health and wellbeing.

Ferrier, MB 2013, ‘Media Entrepreneurship: Curriculum Development and Faculty Perceptions of What Students Should Know’, Journalism & Mass Communication Educator, vol. 68, no. 3, pp. 222-241.

 Kitching, J & Smallbone, D 2012, ‘Are freelancers a neglected form of small business?’, Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, vol. 19, no. 1, pp. 74-91.

 Platman, K, Salaman, G & Storey, J 2005, ‘Living with enterprise in an enterprise economy: Freelance and contract workers in the media’, Human Relations, vol. 58, no. 8, pp. 1033-1054.

This Article is both situated in the sphere of media studies but is also within the fields of occupational sociology and industrial sociology. Published in the the journal Human Relations it tends to focus upon ideas around the shift in the markets’ traditional work forms to more market-based, enterprising organisational forms and relationships. Specifically, the article seeks to explore how freelance work is interpreted, evaluate and sustained particularly framed by the concept of enterprise; both in relation to their work, but also their self identities. The bulk of the article responds to a detailed study of numerous media professionals who had all worked in traditional media business hierarchies. The professionals were interviewed for approximately 80 minutes with their responses recorded.  Interviewees included trade union leaders, clients (of freelance workers), talent managers and freelance media workers. However, the discussion of the study mainly comprised of the responses of those who were working as freelancers. The article is split into a section of reports about prevailing practises and then a main section which examines the what had been reported by the freelance workers. Within this section aspects and quotes of the interviews conducted were deconstruction and analysed. In these instances anecdotal evidence provided by interviewees was discussed in relation to the broader industry. An interesting aspect of the study’s discussion was the ways in which freelancers are paradoxically thinking of themselves as micro businesses whilst also removing themselves from their work to maintain mental health and form a separate identity. Inherently Freelancing is a social profession, relying upon network skills and existing social circles but conversely in is reliant upon resilient worker who can separate their social identify from their profession.

The main concept I gleaned from this particular reading was that although the Media Industry is evolving and changing at an accelerating rate, by identifying the consumption habits of the youth market, companies have the potential to flourish. The other large area of interest was the necessity for companies to invest in data and the importance of it’s analysis. This also  feeds into the algorithms companies use to personalise the way in which people access content and interact with advertisements and marketing.

Younger generations tend to adopt new technologies faster than the older generations and the way they consume their media, on these technologies, is vastly different. The ability to consume media over multiple screens is more and more predominate. Having grown in a world saturated with screens, younger people tend to be better consuming content across screens, platforms and devices. Part of it, is that millennials are merely capitalising upon screen media’s Inherent dependency upon sound, particularly television (streamed or broadcast). Rather than fulfilling the role of passive audiences, consumers are also accessing secondary content to either enhance their primary form of entertainment or to satisfy their thirst for extra stimulation. Another aspect of this push toward gearing products and content towards younger markets is to capture business early in adult life. Rather than banking upon the wealthy and usually older consumers, companies can now look to young people who will remain consumers of a product that adapts and evolves to their consumption needs.

Looking to embrace technology and to adopt advancements is also central to how companies and content creators can sustain themselves financially. The accelerated rate at which the industry shifts suggests that companies need to be flexible and adopt new platforms to capture new and to retain existing audiences.