A concise introduction to content and the content industry from the early internet to the
Instagram egg. From the time we roll out of bed to check overnight updates to our last posts
likes and views of the previous day we're consuming and producing content. But what does the
term content even mean? When did it become ubiquitous? And at what cost? In this volume in the
MIT Press Essential Knowledge series Kate Eichhorn offers a concise introduction to content
and the content industry examining the far-reaching effects content has on culture politics
and labor in a digital age. Eichhorn traces the evolution of our current understanding of
content from the early internet to the current social mediaverse. The quintessential example of
content she says is the Instagram egg-an image that imparted no information or knowledge and
circulated simply for the sake of circulation. Eichhorn explores what differentiates
user-generated content from content produced by compensated (although often undercompensated)
workers examines how fields from art and literature to journalism and politics have weathered
the rise of the content industry and investigates the increasing importance of artists'
content capital-the ability of artists writers and performers to produce content not about
their work but about their status as artists.
