BOSTON (AP) — Judges order the federal government to use contingency funds for SNAP food aid payments during the shutdown.

Memes I made while procrastinating writing my "Is Taylor Swift a trad wife?" talk

A hard part about being a media studies professor is my personal and professional opinions on media don’t always align. How do I reconcile that? Carefully. Deliberately. The same way I enjoy social media and also write extensively on social media. It takes time and practice

The NY Times and WaPo may be lost causes but holy shite look at PEOPLE out here absolutely killing it with 100% unvarnished truths 🌟

All these universities hastily hiring for AI positions when the bubble is going to burst in a year or two is like if they’d hired for website professors in 2000 before the dot-com crash

Save the date! @jessmaddox.bsky.social (Zoom) talks about Taylor Swift on Oct. 31 in Tucker 127A, William & Mary

Against my better judgement I wade into the discourse. Monday in my newsletter. open.substack.com/pub/bytheway...

Academic friends - if journals had, say, a code of ethics for peer review, what would you want to see included?

Today's entertainment media analysis class should be fun.

I just saw someone use the abbreviation “AI;DR” and I’ll be laughing for a while.

Hi friends! If you like my public scholarship and would like to support me, I've launched at Buy Me a Coffee. All of my work here, on Threads, Substack, and TikTok will remain free. This is just if you want to support in an additional way. buymeacoffee.com/jessmaddox

"It’s the Internet, Stupid. What caused the global populist wave? Blame the screens."- Francis Fukuyama www.persuasion.community/p/its-the-in... Sorry, but this thesis is not entirely convincing, as populist and fascist movements existed long before the internet.

My latest is on Sora's AI and why we should care about stolen art For more, follow: + www.tiktok.com/@drewharwell + www.instagram.com/bydrewharwell

Bringing this over here since Twitter is stupid. Taylor Swift eras as research methods with no explanations: A thread. Debut: Participant Observation

I wonder if my editor will let me use the opening lines of Eldest Daughter as an epigraph for my book about internet scandals

Tomorrow on my Substack. open.substack.com/pub/bytheway...

Recent adventures in cooking: 1. Vegan cheesy Korean BBQ tofu tots 2. Tofu schnitzel with vegan roasted red pepper sauce, homemade mashed potatoes, and roasted asparagus 3. Miso dense bean salad 4. Frozen hot chocolate pie

they should probably let people know this exists. And put it on Twitch. And have someone who knows how to stream comment over it.

enshittification in science.

Not me writing my trade book proposal and reliving the canon event of being a graduate student trying to hash out the entire thesis/dissertation in the proposal instead of the final document.

For a decade, I was a partner of a federal employee. Even though he's no longer one, my heart aches for all of the people about to affected by tonight's government shutdown. I know that stress too well. These shutdowns hurt innocent people in the name of political games

You either die a hero or live long enough to take on the academic service you swore as a PhD student you would never do.

First time ever grilling, with a nice backdrop. Ribeye turned out pretty good for my first time! But the soy sauce Worcestershire rosemary marinade was 💯

🤷🏿‍♂️

It really is a gift in this field when you get an R&R that makes you think. That makes you read and learn more. That makes you better.

This Rosh Hashanah we celebrated with pot roast and homemade challah. L’shanah tovah!

"Reylo and Dramione booms function like media franchises for book publishing, banking on and extending the reach of reliably lucrative IP. For publishing houses, it’s a clear win. These books can cash in on fannish enthusiasm through an always plausibly deniable connection to the fannish property."

If Karoline Leavitt is correct and TikTok’s algorithm is going to split so a new US entity has oversight of it, it could lobotmise the app in America. My latest for @fastcompany.com, featuring @jessmaddox.bsky.social, @boesch.bsky.social and @tomdivon.bsky.social www.fastcompany.com/91408598/tru...

Even though I'm currently writing about this, you know what I'm getting bored with? Visibility in creator/influencer studies. Give me a haptics of content creation. What would the audio of influencing be? We can't get stuck in visibility forever.

In hindsight, instead of putting a labubu on Karl Marx’s grave, it would have been funnier to put it on Theodor Adorno’s.

I don’t have the energy to explain why Rupert Murdoch being part of the TikTok deal is bad news.

I've written this post, and then I've deleted it. As a public scholar, I walk the line of commentary and inviting trouble. I don't believe I've done it, but in these times, I don't know. This is my diagnostic of internet culture, algorithms, & violence. bythewaysocial.substack.com/p/btw-social...

So the new TikTok detail requires: 1. A majority American board (which it already had) 2. Data to be housed in the US (which it already was) 3. ByteDance to retain control of the algorithm and “lease” it out to US TikTok (which it already did). Good art of the deal indeed.

Studying content creators, influencers, and internet culture…I’ve heard it all.

I hate how much AI makes me think of Marx and being alienated from our labor. It begs these questions: 1. Do you want to be a writer, or do you want to have written? 2. And for academics…do you want to publish, or do you want to think?

None of my students ever laugh at this image :(

New moment unlocked of my TA having to sort out my classroom tech for me. 🫠

Trump threatens to withhold federal funding from NY if NYC elects Mamdani. An impeachable offense for any other president in any other era. In this one it’s just another Monday.

A “framework” deal for TikTok? I’ll believe it when I see it. Either nothing happens or this screws over US creators. www.cnbc.com/2025/09/15/t...

Made a video about Internet culture and radicalization and hate speech (since we seem to be having THAT discussion again)…and TikTok immediately flagged it for…hate speech.

we. need. to. teach. media. literacy. in. schools. (social media is still media.) but Republicans would never allow it because they benefit from people’s knee-jerk reactions and fear mongering.

Good thread with good advice for us all in light of last week’s events.

This is a week I’ve sat with my thoughts instead of posting. There’s been so much shouting, and I don’t even know if this matters. But I’ve thought about a lot: gaslighting, violence, the boundaries of empathy.

This week: I got stung by something through my clothes. I got stung by a caterpillar that fell on me. I was introduced to the invasive joro spider. Me: 0; Georgia bugs: 3

In 1987, I was 11 and I was home alone during a snow day watching TV (WEBSTER rerun, I think) when the show was interrupted by live news coverage of a press conference held by disgraced PA Treasurer, Budd Dwyer. That's how I (and many other kids) ended up watching a live suicide on TV.

Ah shit the academic sales people found my new email.

Breaking news happening? Reminder: bsky.app/profile/onth...

"A suspect is in custody, according to a UVU alert sent to students. The campus is on lockdown. “A single shot was fired on campus toward a visiting speaker. Police are investigating now, suspect in custody,” an alert from UVU said." www.deseret.com/utah/2025/09...