Starting on the academic equivalent of 3rd and making it to home plate is not, in fact, as impressive as the people who start in a rec league and somehome still make it into the majors.

I kind of can’t believe Gangnam Style hasn’t had its TikTok moment yet.

I finally made it to Chicago after circling for two hours because of weather + a surprise diversion to Milwaukee to refuel. I’ll be presenting research at be annual Society of Cinema and Media Studies conference on people who livestream their jobs.

Spoke to Wired for this piece. In a world where AI can only mimic its prompt, it’s not surprise this reflects the inherent violence of reality TV dating shows. Also everyone should watch the old show UnReal

I made it through security in ATL in 25 minutes. Thankfully I have pre-check. Shoutout to the ATL airport for being so organized and on top of it, and to the TSA agents caught in the middle. Many of them were working multiple stations.

In the year of 2026 I just had to listen to an old man tell me (again) that social media and content creation are just fads.

The only way I knew how to celebrate AJ’s new book was to get him a political Cameo.

It finally happened. A reviewer told me to cite Maddox's work on BookTok. I am Maddox.

I'm back on my Substack bullshit tomorrow. open.substack.com/pub/bytheway...

A real email I sent to my boss today.

Rethinking television via TikTok. That sounds like a pretty cool paper d-(^_^)z

New article out today with Andreas Schellewald, @krystenstein.bsky.social, Ignacio Siles, and Ellenrose Firth, in which we examine how TikTok functions like television via audiences, genres, political economy, aesthetics, and intertextual elements. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

An absolute banger of an article by @nancybaym.bsky.social out today in Social Media + Society. She astutely captures so much of what I've felt and observed about social media these days. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

My opening editorial as Editor-in-Chief of Creator and Influencer Studies is now live. In this piece, I reflect on how creator and influencer studies has been a discipline for a while, and how journals risk siloing as much as they do creating an umbrella. link.springer.com/article/10.1...

I am teaching a digital culture research seminar this term and I shared @jessmaddox.bsky.social newsletter with the students—they absolutely loved it. Students are now asking me if I know of any other similar newsletters. Any recommendations? I am trying to compile a public list.

Have more questions about Creator and Influencer Studies? I still have answers.

Got a question about the new journal Creator and Influencer Studies? We have answers. As a friendly reminder, please do not DM me with submissions questions but email them to jessmaddox [at] uga [dot] edu

Exciting news for everyone on #TeamRhetoric studying "content creators, influencers, content production, and creator/influencer cultures examining the critical-cultural, ethical, industrial, and socio-political dimensions of the creator and influencer economies."

Some personal news, as they say. Get your submissions ready for when our portal opens February 12. As the founding editor-in-chief of the new Springer Nature academic journal Creator and Influencer Studies, I’m thrilled to welcome them. link.springer.com/journal/44538

My dear friend @jessmaddox.bsky.social has launched a new academic journal for folks who study content creators and influencers! If that's your thing do consider submitting your work: link.springer.com/journal/4453...

The transition to U.S. TikTok has been messy. This has led to a lot of conspiracies. I'm the first to say we should be skeptical of this new venture, but this weekend's problems speak to glitches, incompetence, and the physicality of social media infrastructure more than they do censorship.

Okay but Karl Marx is actually funny as hell.

Is TikTok shadowbanning anyone talking politics? Maybe, but probably not. TikTok is glitching in several ways right now, and not just in views.

More info here: www.instagram.com/reel/DT3Bz3s...

This is a great primer for PhD students or ECRs who are interested in doing public facing work

This is probably long overdue, but here's the guide I give my students on how to do public scholarship and engage with media. drive.google.com/file/d/1mHMu...

Happy Friday.

Petition to get rid of email subject lines because emailing IT with a subject line, “virus?” is a rather demoralizing way to start spring semester

This spring, I'm teaching my favorite course: My "social media storytelling," or a "how to be a professional content creator" class. Syllabus below. drive.google.com/file/d/1rcbp...

I guess these are the “precedented” times we asked for

In honor of finally watching season five of Stranger Things, I have to say again that Starcourt Mall in Season 3 was my childhood mall, and my first job in high school was at the Aeropostale in that mall.

Authenticity is kind of the defining floating signifier of the times.

Adam Mosseri says authenticity will become more important than ever as AI becomes more common. He’s right and wrong.

The Slopocalypse

"No Way To Prevent This," Says Company Spending Billions Of Dollars To Encourage This

I’m a NYE grinch. It’s a stupid simulation (à la Baudrillard) but I did get good pizza and have Prosecco and will watch college football

13 episodes of How Did You Get Here, ft. @epinicion.bsky.social @zo-e.xyz @josephgalbo.bsky.social @harrylylesjr.bsky.social @danielwagner.lol @jessmaddox.bsky.social +more and @celebrityhottub.bsky.social interviewing *me* new season starting 1/7

“Went viral” is an old stock phrase in journalism that really does not capture the dynamic of how X dot Com has been tuned to give people like the one specific legislator here the power to intentionally cause this kind of outcome

Not only is Die Hard a Christmas movie, it is also a scathing critique of Cold War era bureaucracy and the Reagan administration, in this essay I will

Christmas Eve Eve baking

Okay so the worst part about changing jobs is having to manually re-enter years of your work into a new faculty productivity tracking system.

One final interview to close out 2025 - I spoke to NBC News about influencer Jaclyn Hill, the backlash to her videos about losing views, and how as influencing has professionalized and become more corporate, its lost the authenticity that once made it powerful. www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/...

A decade ago my husband was a gentile recovering Catholic who didn’t know how to spell Hanukkah and today he’s upset he forgot to buy applesauce for his latkes.

One of the biggest lessons I learned about writing through my literary agent is that an editing note means the reader has been taken out of the work, distracted by a thought, a moment of confusion, a contradiction, etc.

Important to remember that the TikTok deal, which delivered the app into the hands of pro-Trump billionaires, was only made possible by President Biden and the Democrats. www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...

Not a major global news outlet asking me to become a regular contributor for them but telling me I’d have to write for free.

I spoke to The Verge about Taylor Swift, the company that found bot activity surrounding her album release, and how real people actually act like bots when it comes to viral conversations. www.theverge.com/report/84572...

That’s a finished book, baby.

People always ask me how I’m able to write and publish so much, but you don’t see is me currently lying on the floor of my office yelling to my husband that I can’t write this book anymore while my dog licks my hair.