‘Freelancing’ as Spectacular Free Labour: A Case Study on Independent Digital Journalists in Romania

Abstract

Using a case study approach (based on non-structured interviews, observations, and thematic analysis of articles) and drawing on Debord’s notion of spectacle, this research aims at investigating the activity of a residence of independent digital journalists/writers in Romania. This residence’s aim is to foster the production of journalistic/non-fictional content, outside the institutions that materialize the dominant world view at the social and individual level (as in Debord’s understanding): mainstream media institutions or editorial houses. The case study ultimately illuminates the two-fold way in which freelancing journalists simultaneously disrupt and reproduce the spectacle as it crystallizes in the journalism field. The