Virtual Influencers and the New Wave of Digital Labour Exploitation

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dc.contributor.advisorBergstrom, Kelly
dc.contributor.authorHughes, Calvin
dc.date.accessioned2023-12-08T14:27:36Z
dc.date.available2023-12-08T14:27:36Z
dc.date.issued2023-12-08
dc.date.updated2023-12-08T14:27:35Z
dc.degree.disciplineCommunication & Culture, Joint Program with Toronto Metropolitan University
dc.degree.levelMaster's
dc.degree.nameMA - Master of Arts
dc.description.abstractVirtual influencers (VIs) are animated replacements for human social media influencers, with popular VIs like Lil Miquela garnering millions of followers. This thesis explores the unaddressed ways VIs enable the exploitation of the human labourers creating them. As human influencers have become more powerful and expensive to work with brands and marketers have sought to regain control over them. The behind-the-scenes workers creating VIs have limited ownership of the characters they create, and a system of NDAs, job insecurity, and exploitation of worker passion discourages workers from discussing labour conditions. These conditions complicate primary research on VI creators, pushing me towards influencer studies and digital labour literature as the unit of analysis for my exploration of labour conditions in the VI industry. Political economy, emotional capitalism, and affect theory frameworks guide this analysis. I argue that the labour ecosystem surrounding VIs represents concerning future trends in labour exploitation.
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10315/41633
dc.languageen
dc.rightsAuthor owns copyright, except where explicitly noted. Please contact the author directly with licensing requests.
dc.subjectCommunication
dc.subjectEconomics, Labor
dc.subjectWeb studies
dc.subject.keywordsVirtual influencers
dc.subject.keywordsPolitical economy
dc.subject.keywordsAffect theory
dc.subject.keywordsLil Miquela
dc.subject.keywordsLabour exploitation
dc.subject.keywordsInfluencer studies
dc.subject.keywordsEmotional capitalism
dc.subject.keywordsSocial media
dc.subject.keywordsDigital labour
dc.titleVirtual Influencers and the New Wave of Digital Labour Exploitation
dc.typeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation

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