Working on video platforms: forms of development and organization of the activity of YouTube audiovisual producers in Argentina

Abstract

This paper focuses its analysis on how YouTube audiovisual content producers in Argentina develop and organize their activity, which they perceive as work. Specifically, it is interested in knowing whether they carry out their activity individually or collectively, and whether there is any form of collective organization (actual or potential) in the face of possible conflicts with the platform. To do this, a series of interviews conducted with producers during 2018 were analyzed. Additionally, the discourse of the video platform was studied to understand to what extend this corresponds to the producers’ narratives. The main findings account for a marked individuality in the ways of developing their activity, a fact that comes into collision with potential forms of collective organization and reproduces YouTube’s discourse.