The cultural industries feed this interest with “behind-the-scenes” content and countless stories set in the world of entertainment. The “creative world” depicted on screen and in song is typically romanticized, a demanding but ­rewarding workplace wherein conflicts are overcome with energy, intensity, abundance, transparency, and community. Unfortunately, this romantic image of how media is created has framed our understanding—even our critical understandings—of how media is produced. For an audience. By a team. Working for a company. Usually a big corporation.

XREF: Connects to broader critiques of romanticized labor across creative fields, and to audience misunderstandings of corporate production realities.

Andrew deWaard, Derivative Media, loc. 56