Speaker: Brooke Erin Duffy, Cornell University
Title: The Visibility Bind: Power and Paradox in the Creator Economy
Time: 3-4 p.m.
Date: Nov. 11, 2026
Location: Computing and Information Science Building, Room 250
Click here to attend via Zoom
Abstract: More than two decades after YouTube invited scrappy amateurs to “broadcast yourself,” social media content creation has transformed into one of the fastest-growing labor markets. Some two hundred million people reportedly work as platform-dependent content creators, influencers, or streamers. Social media platforms boldly tout the rewards of the so-called "creator economy": independence, flexibility, and the chance to convert one’s ingenuity into cash. Yet the image of work in this entrepreneurial Promised Land conceals a starker reality—one marked by labor precarity, exploitation, and entrenched structural inequalities. Drawing on in-depth research with creators, talent intermediaries, and platform representatives, I introduce the paradox of “the visibility bind.”
On the one hand, labor devaluation and algorithmic suppression—where unseen forces and so-called “shadowbans” conceal worker output—threaten to render creators invisible. On the other, excessive visibility introduces harms of its own, from scrutiny and surveillance to networked harassment. For creators at the margins—among them, creators of color, LGBTQ+ voices, and disability advocates—the bind is especially pronounced, skewering the fantasy of a talent meritocracy. But while platforms hold immense power to structure the pathways to success, creators wield newfound sway in what emerges as a high-stakes visibility game. They are organizing, building solidarity, and experimenting with new forms of labor consciousness.
Bio: Brooke Erin Duffy, Ph.D., (she/her) is a Professor in the Department of Communication at Cornell University, where she holds graduate appointments in Media Studies and the Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies program. Her areas of expertise include platforms and cultural production; gender and feminist media studies; and influencer labor and the creator economy. She is the author or co-author of three published books, including (Not) Getting Paid to Do What You Love: Gender and Aspirational Labor in the Social Media Economy (Yale University Press, 2017). Her latest monograph, The Visibility Bind: Being Seen, Getting Paid, and Paying the Price of Social Media Success, is forthcoming from The University of Chicago Press. Duffy’s work has been published in such journals as Journal of Communication, New Media & Society, the International Journal of Communication, Critical Studies in Media Communication, the International Journal of Cultural Studies, Social Media + Society, and Information, Communication, and Society. In addition to her academic publications, she has disseminated her research to a broader audience through popular writing in The Atlantic, Vox, Salon, Business Insider, Wired, and Forbes.
