A Political Economy Analysis of the Chinese Delivery Worker's Daily Communication Practice

This extended essay explores the interaction between delivery workers’ political-economic status and their daily communication practice. The daily communication practice means the mobile phone and social media usage since the mobile phone and Internet are the media they use most often.The delivery workers are marginalized in political status since they have rural household registration while their income is closer to the income of urban white-collar workers. Moreover, the delivery industry needs more policies and laws to regulate the industry since it is an emerging industry. It exploits the vulnerable position of, and creates opportunities for, delivery workers to struggle for better citizenship rights and income.Their status excludes them from public discussion and they use private social media such as QQ and Wechat more than the public social media such as Weibo . However, the mobile phone and social media have the potential to impact on their political-economic status and struggle for better life.