Technobohemians or the new cybertariat?

Accounts of new media working draw heavily on two polarised stereotypes, veering between technoutopianism, and a vision of web-workers as the new ‘precariat’, victims of neoliberal economic policies and moves to flexibilisation and insecurity on the other. Heralded from both perspectives as representing the brave new world of work what is striking is the absence of research on new media workers own experiences, particularly in a European context. This essay about the contemporary myths of new media work, explores how people work in the field experience the pleasures, pressures and challenges of working on the web. Illustrated throughout with quotations from interviews, this research examines the different career biographies emerging for contentproducers in web-based industries, questions the relevance of existing education and training and keeping up to date in a fast-moving field where software and expectations change rapidly. Interviews were carried out by Danielle van Diemen and Rosalind Gill.