| There are more than 20 million truck drivers in China,who have always been shuttled between cities,silently taking on the heavy burden of social logistics and transport,a lone ranger running on the road,in solitude.The spread of smart media and mobile internet has allowed truck drivers in the "silos" of the cab to regain the ability to connect to the world.They have also become practitioners who can proactively use information technology and make use of existing social networks to solve their respective problems.Their highly random and mobile daily work makes it difficult for them to have a stable and realistic communication scenario.Their labour life practices therefore require a high degree of dependence on the media and their lives are highly mediated.This paper uses online ethnography and in-depth interviews to gain access to five various types of communication groups for 10 months of observation and in-depth communication with 20 truck drivers.Through the analysis,the media practices of truck drivers are split into three aspects: daily labour,leisure and recreation,and social relationship maintenance.Starting from this,we tried to explore the changing labour lifestyle of truck drivers in the mediated society in a three-dimensional way,and find the characteristics of truck drivers’ mediated existence.Work is the most subjective practice of the mediated existence of the truck driver.The medium creates a companionable and guiding scenario and maintains three different rhythms-synchronous,asynchronous and isometric-with the real space in order to better guide the truck driver throughout his labour.The platforms constructed by the media plan and guide the trajectory of the truck driver’s work and play an important role in the truck driver’s mediated existence.The leisure and recreation are highly intertwined with the labour processes of truck drivers to an almost inseparable degree.It is also an important way of reproducing the truck driver’s workforce.The media have enriched truck drivers’ leisure and recreation,but they have also fragmented truck drivers’ breaks and holidays,leaving them on constant standby and only able to take breaks when they see fit.The media has also created new ways of socialising that,while influencing labour,intertwine the labour time and private time of the driver,and in the process the media image and personal image of the truck driver intertwine and merge.People are the sum of all social relationships.The mobile internet and smart media have disrupted the way truckers used to socialise,creating a mediated socialisation.This has not only affected the maintenance of intimate relationships among truck drivers,but has also built a "virtual workplace" in the spirit of solidarity among truckers and extended a pragmatic-oriented industrial chain and a virtual atmosphere of solidarity related to group honour.In the process,truckers have become semi-organised and have changed the stigmatization of the group.In the traditional media era,truck drivers who are always "on the road" can only communicate with their families and society through telephone,and it is difficult for them to obtain social information and participate in social affairs and integrate into society.Mobile Internet and intelligent media have changed the daily work and life of truck drivers,and also changed their solitary labor characteristics,allowing them to connect to various cultural circles in society.The media has extended the capabilities of truck drivers beyond the cab,allowing them to reconnect with a social reality from which they were already somewhat disconnected,making them a truly "mediated existence".By using the media to extend themselves,truck drivers are able to "combine reality with reality" in various online communities and real circles,forming virtual organisations based on the spirit of solidarity and pragmatism.While participating in social affairs,they have conquered time and space through the media and are better integrated into society. |
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