An attack on Black America is an attack on all of America. Remember: if they come for us, they’ll come for you next. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/16/u...

There's been a lot of conversation about clipping. I almost wrote my dissertation about this back in 2017. And as tenured prof in social media, I'm pretty ambivalent about this practice. www.npr.org/2026/05/12/n...

Announcing the lineup of presenters for the Trans-Asian Transcultural Fandom Symposium 🫶 Our event is free and open to all 🆓 Sign up today ▶️ tinyurl.com/tatf2026 or scan the QR code 📲 💌 Follow us for updates! #Fandom #FanStudies #TransculturalFandom #KPop #kpopfandom #fandoms #asianfandom

The kids are alright. Quite on top of everything else, what kind of bozo makes a graduation speech that isn't actually about the graduates?

What should we make of Hollywood’s turn toward microdramas, as well as TikTok’s heavy investment in them? How is any of this different than Quibi? @krystenstein.bsky.social and I answer those questions in our latest op-ed for The Conversation. theconversation.com/tiktoks-popu...

I may be plant based most of the time, but I still love grilling a steak.

Listen. I play this dumb little train game to relax at night instead of scrolling. The “objectives” of the game are to build your train empire and you often do so through helping facilitate the building of major historical projects. But tell me why this new objective is building Chernobyl.

I haven’t done a recent adventures in cooking roundup in a while 1. Pretzels and Creature Comforts beer cheese. 2. Homemade Taco Bell vegan fiesta cheesy potatoes 3. Sweet potato black bean bowls 4. Homemade spicy tofu pho

On this International Creator Day, I'm excited to share I've been appointed a founding member of the American Influencer Council's Academic Advisory Circle to bridge creator economy research and industry practice.

Apparently someone took a hairdryer to Charles de Gaulle airport to manipulate a temperature sensor to win a bet on #Polymarket. Weird--but not new! My recent @aeon.co essay on weather gambling mentions early 20th-c. data manipulation & bribery for exactly the same purpose. aeon.co/essays/what-...

New publication! Anne Herfurth, a University of Alabama Management Information Systems PhD student, and I conducted a textual analysis of news coverage of the 2023-2024 mass layoffs in the Tech industry. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Thank you, News Creator Corps, for highlighting our journal, Creator and Influencer Studies! We had a great conversation about avoiding monolithic, white-focused/American-centric research, research privacy concerns, the slow speed of academic research, and more newscreatorcorps.org/2026/04/jess...

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