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.

For the fourth year in a row, I was asked to write for Nieman Lab's end of the year predictions. For 2026, I wrote that it's time we de-influence news influencers. www.niemanlab.org/2025/12/de-i...

Our students have raised 90 percent of their $25k goal. Will you help them cross the finish line?

You can now pre-order my book, Making the Liberal Media, directly from Columbia University Press! Use the discount code CUP20 and save $7! cup.columbia.edu/book/making-...

Don't look now, but based on early returns Democrats have a shot at flipping a legislative seat in Georgia tonight... The results from Athens are gigantic for their candidate. More momentarily.

Very excited to announce that I am in the process of selling my first trade book to a major U.S. publisher. More information to come in the new year, and I can't wait to share the stories about what this journey entailed and tell you about the book.

This year: - I accepted a new job and resigned from my old one. - My husband was laid off by Elon - My beloved uncle passed away unexpectedly - I sold my house - We moved to a new state - I started a new job - I made two huge academic career decisions that I can't wait to tell you about

When I taught at Alabama, the students working for these magazines were some of the sharpest, best students I’ve ever taught. No one forced the university to shut down these magazines - it was a preemptive, cowardly move. I stand in solidarity with my former colleagues & students.

My favorite part of Spotify wrapped is all the ways it calls me obsessive and neurodivergent at the end of every year.

16 year old me is very happy right now.

Excited that my work with Celeste Oon has been accepted into the 2026 Society for Cinema and Media Studies conference! We’ve been researching live streamers who stream their jobs, from uber drivers to farm workers to line cooks.

NEW PUB ANNOUCEMENT! out today in @ejcs-journal.bsky.social, I wrote about lolcows, livestreaming, and how platform affordances and anti-fan practices catalyze digital freakery. journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1...

Out now in my Substack: My thoughts on Cambridge Dictionary selecting "parasocial" as their word of the year, and how this isn't just a phenomenon for celebrities anymore. bythewaysocial.substack.com/p/btw-we-are...

I'm slowly pivoting to holiday time off - my next Substack post drops the Monday after American Thanksgiving and contains all of my thoughts about "parasocial" as Cambridge Dictionary's word of the year. open.substack.com/pub/bytheway...

I was listening to a podcast of authors talking about "bad review" parties where everyone brings their most brutal review to try to win a predetermined prize. Academics should do this with peer reviews. I think my "amusing at best, waste of academic time at worst" is a strong contender.

Recent adventures in cooking.