Creative Control

David Hesmondhalgh, University of Leeds:
Siciliano’s thoughtful, compelling book deserves to be a major reference point in studies of creative labor and in research on work in an age of digital platforms. It combines careful ethnography with an impressive range of reading to provide fresh perspectives on longstanding problems of alienation, exploitation, and control.

Melissa Gregg, author of Counterproductive: Time Management in the Knowledge Economy:
With Creative Control, Michael Siciliano joins the finest of ethnographic traditions—the study of labor in our times. This fresh perspective on cultural work unpacks the reality behind our algorithmically defined entertainment future, the content treadmill that seduced the emotional and professional repertoire of a generation.

Timothy J. Dowd, Emory University:
Some scholars argue that creative work enlivens local economies, while others emphasize that it exemplifies the precarious employment spreading across national economies. Siciliano deftly navigates those divergent depictions by turning to the workers themselves—illuminating the attraction that creativity holds for them, as well as the challenges it brings. As a result, he rightfully moves us from abstract notions of creative work to the embodied and everyday activity that it actually entails.

John T. Caldwell, author of Production Culture: Industrial Reflexivity and Critical Practice in Film/Television:
Film and media scholars who study industries must read Creative Control. Siciliano leverages cultural sociology and meticulous ethnography to masterfully unpack the considerable contradictions of media creation in the platform era. His focus on creative routinization exposes film studies' exceptionalism as a strawman, ill-equipped to make sense of online media.