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As media industries undergo rapid change the conditions of media work are shifting just as quickly with an explosion in the number of jour- nalists working as freelancers. Although commen- tary frequently lauds freelancers as ideal workers for the information age adaptable multi-skilled and entrepreneurial Nicole Cohen argues that freelance media work is increasingly precarious marked by declining incomes loss of control over ones work intense workloads long hours and limited access to labour and social protections. Writers Rights provides context for freelancers struggles and identies the points of contention between journalists and big business. Through in- terviews and a survey of freelancers Cohen high- lights the paradoxes of freelancing which can be simultaneously precarious and satisfying risky and rewarding. She documents the transformation of freelancing from a way for journalists to resist salaried labour in pursuit of autonomy into a strategy for media rms to intensify exploitation of freelance writers labour power and presents case studies of freelancers efforts to collectively transform their conditions. A groundbreaking and timely intervention into debates about the future of journalism organizing precariously employed workers and the transfor- mation of media work in the digital age Writers Rights makes clear what is at stake for journal- isms democratic role when the costs and risks of its production are ofoaded onto individuals. Nicole S. Cohen is an assistant professor in the Institute of Communication Culture Information and Technology at the University of Toronto Mississauga. 2 4 M Q U P F A L L 2 0 1 6 C O M M U N I C AT I O N S T U D I E S L A B O U R S T U D I E S Writers Rights Freelance Journalism in a Digital Age nicole s. cohen A timely study of freelance journalistsworking conditions and what is at stake for the future of journalism in precarious times. S P E C I F I C AT I O N S November 2016 978-0-7735-4796-4 34.95T CDN 34.95T US 26.99 cloth 6 x 9 328pp Ebook available