Digitala kommunikatörer - kommersialisering av livsvärlden och det emotionella arbetet

Sammanfattning

This qualitative interview study aims to investigate how working with social media affects communication practitioners’ work situations. Moreover, it explores strategies for facilitating a communicative mission that may be perceived as stressful for the individual. Through in-depth interviews with communication practitioners, this study shows how working with social media leads to a merge of the private and the professional sphere. Unless the right preconditions are given in order to prevent or avoid the situation, this could cause negative consequences for the communication practitioner’s work situation. With the aim to offer deepened knowledge about processes behind social media communication, the analysis proceeds from a critical theoretical perspective, focused on emotional labour and the exploitation and commercialization of the lifeworld. The results indicate that communication practitioners experience increased stress caused by the system’s intrusion on the private sphere. Furthermore, there are significant differences between the communication practitioners’ perceived abilities to manage the communicative mission. Overall, the study shows that several factors are perceived as vital in order for social media work to be sustainable for the individual. The main determinants are organizational culture, the view on social media within the organization and support from management. In the long run, these factors are also perceived to affect the practical opportunities to practice strategic communication.