Framing the gig economy: Delivery riders in Spanish media (2015–21)

Abstract

Riders or delivery messengers are currently a symbol of job insecurity. However, companies in the so-called gig or platform economy continue to present themselves as modern ones, technologically adapted to the new scheme that defines the twenty-first century. The article analyses, from the perspective of framing and journalistic routines, the media coverage (press) of the main delivery companies in Spain: Glovo and Deliveroo. Using a longitudinal sample of 764 pieces of news drawn from the six most important Spanish newspapers from January 2015 to December 2021, we explore the conditions under which this information is prepared and how this determines the frames of their narrative. This article exposes the principal media frames used in the news treatment of the rider phenomena and analyses its causes, focusing on structural elements in the journalistic routines from a materialist perspective. In short, this article focuses on an analysis of the collision of frames as a continuation of the capital/labour struggle in the media sphere.