Research On Labor Relations And Group Characteristics Of "Internet Volunteers"

Marx's discussion of labor-related concepts has changed the stereotypes of"labor" and "laborers" since ancient times,making the whole world a big step forward in the cognition and research of "labor." Under the background of the current development of network and information technology,the concept of "labor" is no longer limited to other manual workers,but has a broad concept extension and connotation.All workers who using their brain for work are also included.Therefore,researchers are paying more and more attention to "knowledge labor".With the development of information technology,the new labor production relationship generated in the new media environment has gradually begun to exert tremendous influence in social life,and the problem of network knowledge labor has become an issue that cannot be ignored."Network volunteers" are typical representatives of network knowledge workers.With the continuous development of technology,not only the scope and breadth of communication are expanding,but also the number and scope of communicators are expanding.More and more ordinary people can use the Internet and various terminals to become information producers,publisher and communicators.And these ordinary people who have been "expanded" are consciously or unconsciously involved in the process of network social economic production and information dissemination,and unwittingly play the role of laborers and communicators.And quite a few of them have become "network volunteers".However,the existing researches often ignore the status of "laborers" of "network volunteers" in the process of communication,and lack attention to the labor issue itself.Few people pay attention to the group characteristics,labor process,labor results of "network volunteers".And the problems and dilemmas they are facing are also be ignored.The emergence and development of the "network volunteers" organization not only expands new labor relations and forms,but also adds ways and channels for information communication.It also makes outstanding contributions to the rapid development of today's economic,social and cultural environment."Network volunteers" do not get material rewards through labor,and the important motivation for them to engage in corresponding labor is non-material returns,such as the pursuit of their own interests and self-satisfaction.These groups often have their own structure of organization,labor methods and modes of operation,which are different from traditional labor production models.The "network volunteer" organizations also play an important role in the development of the network society.They also face many problems and challenges.Therefore,based on the theory of communication political economy,this paper uses rele vant research methods,like case studies,comparative studies,participant observation,in-depth interview and other research methods.Its purpose is breaking the research formula of the effect of traditional research on the communicating behavior of the communicators,selecting a representative group of"network volunteers" as the research object,focusing on the "labor" issue itself in the research,exploring the labor and communication process of the "network volunteers" in the new media and the overall characteristics of the labor organization groups,thinking of some problems they are facing such as development dilemmas and development prospects.As a group which working without payment and provides unpaid services in cyberspace,they play a very important role in today's online new media environment.As laborers,they are both producers and consumers in the labor process and participate in the entire process of the labor production process.Their labor has the characteristics of flexible time and flexible workload,and has relatively high requirements for the technical level and spare time of laborers.Non-material returns such as interest and self-satisfaction are the driving force for their labor.In the network communication,their status is also very important,both the producer and the communicator of the content.Due to the nature of labor and communication,the composition of the organization is usually dominated by students with higher academic qualifications and literacy levels,stable incomes and occupations,such as students and young white-collar workers,and has a diverse professional background.The spiritual bond of the maintenance group is the return on the spiritual level of interest satisfaction,and the group is based on the weak relationship.This group does not seem to be constrained by traditional labor relations,but it cannot resist the "hidden exploitation"of capital through cyberspace.In the current Internet age,"network volunteers" are indispensable.They create a large part of the Internet space,but they also face many internal and external issues,such as copyright disputes,loose organizational management,lacking of funds,etc.I hope that I can supplement the relevant theories of communication political economy to seek more development space for the "network volunteers" and look for a new path of reasonable development.Then I hope to present some related thinking on the development of the "network volunteers" and the current labor and communication issues in the context of online new media.