“Why I Left BuzzFeed”: Alienation, YouTube, and Creative Labour in the Digital Age

Abstract

Digital media companies on YouTube, exemplified by BuzzFeed, reinforce the perception of employment in the creative industries as an ideal opportunity for young millennials to make money “doing what they love.” In 2016, dozens of videos made by former BuzzFeed employees announcing their departures from the company went viral, challenging this view and granting the public unprecedented insight into the company's labour practices. BuzzFeed thus serves as a valuable case study for digital labour in the contemporary creative industries during a time when formal companies, individual creators, and unpaid users compete for viewership on the platform. This research paper reveals and critically engages with the tradeoffs that creative workers face when negotiating the benefits of working for a company, versus “going independent.” Using Marx’s theory of alienation to analyze “Why I Left BuzzFeed” videos, this paper argues that the option for professional creative workers to become independent creators on YouTube represents a shift towards the ideal of “non-alienated labour.” This article concludes by examining how, despite this shift, independent creative workers are still subsumed under capital.