Digitising Marx: social power, new media technology and the challenge of a collaborative and creative commons

Abstract 'In the digital era, the future is one in which consumers watch or listen to what they want to watch, when they want, at any time they want, on any device. This is a generation that will not wait for content to be delivered to them at a prescribed time.‘ (Carly Fiorina, Hewlett Packard CEO) Digitisation and media technologies have and continue to receive critical consideration both within and outside of academia. From Manuel Castells 'networked logic‘ to Yochai Benkler‘s 'Wealth of Networks‘; new media technologies are cast as redemptive technologies. The argument of this paper is to move beyond traditional utopian/dystopian view of new media and calls for a re-conceptualisation of the analytical tools in assessing digital technology. In particular this paper will critique certain elements of Manichean tendencies and arguments for a critical overhaul through notions of work and capital