Brian Merchant’s “Blood in the Machine” compares the labor struggles of the Industrial Revolution to today’s abusive gig economy. By Gavin Mueller When you purchase an independently reviewed book ...

You have /5 articles left. Sign up for a free account or log in. Blood in the Machine traces the modern resistance to the algorithm-enabled gig economy (think Uber ...

Brian Merchant Brian Merchant is a journalist, critic, and the former tech columnist for the Los Angeles Times. His latest book is Blood in the Machine: The Origins of the Rebellion Against Big Tech.

All of these stories have one major thread in common — each of the media institutions in question had been facing economic challenges, and was run by an owner whose interest was not in producing a ...