This study tries to examine the commodification of media workers (journalists) in the
television mass media industry with a case study on the MNC media group. The researcher
develops a framework of thought from the political economy theory of communication, using the
main concept of commodification. This study uses a critical paradigm with a qualitative approach
and case study method. This research reveals that in the development of MNC Media into the
largest integrated television station in Southeast Asia, there has been a practice of commodification
of its workers. The spatialization carried out by MNC Media through the integration of four private
television stations has caused journalists to experience commodification. Media workers have been
transformed into a major commodity in the mass media industry as a means to accumulate capital.
The mass media industry, which is closely related to capitalism, applies a structure that benefits
investors only through erratic working hours, the provision of minimum wages, and other
exploitative structures such as the repetition of work contracts. These media workers then receive
commodification both consciously and unconsciously through exploitation, alienation,
mystification, reification, and naturalization. The power that is centered on the owners of capital
makes the process of commodification easy for media workers, while they accept this form of
commodification as a natural thing for their profession.
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