The reading this week was an important eye-opener to the world of the media industry beyond University. This reading features in a class within the final semester of the media degree for myself and my peers, which is designed to act as a springboard to transition students between University and the workplace within the field of Media. During this week’s reading, authors Ramon Lobato and Julian Thomas discuss a number of issues regarding freelance roles within the media industry in a transparent manner. Moreover, the Internet and digital technology provide amateur media practitioners with the tools to produce content for media consumption, namely written material such as online articles and website content. As a result of the endless possibilities for new content on the web, along with the ability for any amateur in the world to undertake the task at any time, many freelance writer roles are largely underpaid and often comprised of unnatural and extensive working hours. Essentially, Lobato and Thomas explore whether such freelance roles and content farms exploit writers or allow amateurs to get paid to do what they love within a flexible work environment.

Whilst many positive and negative areas for discussion arise from the exploration, the aspect I found most interesting about this piece was the identification of mass produced content as a result of such an approach. Furthermore, the combination of writers being paid on a basis as low as less than one cent per word of written content, along with the negligible pre-requisite requirement for the worker, forms a motivation to produce content as quickly as possible. In my opinion, such an approach completely floods the internet with rubbish material as I believe creative work cannot be forced and requires space to breathe and improve. Although I have little experience regarding this concept among my work experience, it is still evident to me among completely University or workplace tasks that rushed projects tend to result in diminished creativity. This reading provoked thought about either workplace or academic models that encourage creativity. In Art and Design Blogs: A Socially-Wise Approach to Creativity, Kylie Budge uses blogging to demonstrate an approach to creativity within the higher education academic environment that allows a multitude of people to participate toward a project, as opposed to one individual under a time constraint as seen in the discussion regarding freelance roles.