{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,18]],"date-time":"2026-07-18T22:47:34Z","timestamp":1784414854366,"version":"3.55.0"},"reference-count":80,"publisher":"SAGE Publications","issue":"4","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2006,8,1]],"date-time":"2006-08-01T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1154390400000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/page\/policies\/text-and-data-mining-license"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["New Media &amp; Society"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2006,8]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>This article builds on a case study of the worldwide online dating site Match.com to develop a theoretical understanding of the place of communication and affect in the information economy. Drawing on theoretical debates, secondary sources, a qualitative survey of dating profiles and an analysis of the features and affordances of the Match.com site, the article argues that internet dating seeks to guide the technologically enhanced communicative and affective capacities of internet users to work in ways so that this produces economically valuable content. This is primarily achieved through branding, which as a technique of governance that seeks to work \u2018from below\u2019 and \u2018empower\u2019 users to deploy their freedom in certain particular, pre-programmed ways. The argument is that online dating provides a good illustration of how the information economy actively subsumes communicative action as a form of immaterial labour.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1177\/1461444806065663","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2006,7,19]],"date-time":"2006-07-19T08:40:01Z","timestamp":1153298401000},"page":"671-690","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":49,"title":["\u2018Quality singles\u2019: internet dating and the work of fantasy"],"prefix":"10.1177","volume":"8","author":[{"given":"Adam","family":"Arvidsson","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"University of Copenhagen, Denmark"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"179","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2006,8,1]]},"reference":[{"key":"atypb1","volume-title":"L\u2019integrazione del immigrato nella societ`a industriale [The Integration of Immigrants into Industrial Society]","author":"Alberoni, F.","year":"1965"},{"key":"atypb2","volume-title":"Reality TV. 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