Raising Class Consciousness: Labor Movements and Communication Power in the Information Age

Offering critical and international perspectives on labor and communication, the book demonstrates how the adoption and implementation of technologies are political processes shaped by economic incentives, worker organizing and state intervention. This book focuses on the unequal power dynamics embedded in technological change. Offering critical and interdisciplinary perspectives on labor and communication, the book demonstrates how the adoption and implementation of technologies are political processes, shaped by economic incentives, worker organizing and state intervention. The book reviews how contemporary technologies like algorithms and artificial intelligence are deepening worker precarity, fragmenting labor movements and reinforcing echo chambers. Yet, it also highlights how workers have leveraged various communication technologies—past and present—to reclaim their agency during moments of disruption. Gino Canella is a documentary filmmaker and Associate Professor of Journalism at Emerson College, USA. His interests include social movements, visual culture, and labor. He studies how grassroots movements communicate their issues and organize campaigns for social justice. This book focuses on the unequal power dynamics embedded in technological change. Offering critical and international perspectives on labor and communication, the book demonstrates how the adoption and implementation of technologies are political processes shaped by economic incentives, worker organizing and state intervention. The book reviews how contemporary technologies like algorithms and artificial intelligence are deepening worker precarity, fragmenting labor movements and reinforcing echo chambers. Yet, it also highlights how workers have leveraged various communication technologies—past and present—to reclaim their agency during moments of disruption.