Instead of advertising’s integration of AI media technologies as driven by natural market tendencies, @matthewcrain.bsky.social argues its from systemic commodification & political-economic forces, as analyzed through the Political Economy of Media & Communications framework. tinyurl.com/3yajfcmb

New two part essay out in @flowtv.bsky.social on advertising, AI, the political economy of media and communication. www.flowjournal.org/2025/04/adve...

Bob was a giant. Helped me and many others in countless ways. His clear eyed assessment of power still offers the best way forward.

The great champion of independent, speak-truth-to-power journalism, and of the democracy that can only survive if the press is free, Robert W. McChesney, has died at age 72. He fought the media oligarchs and the politicians who served them — and often won. Now, we must carry the fight forward.

All of this

Were there any first amendment complaints when the US forced a Chinese company to sell Grindr in 2020?

My book, Profit Over Privacy: How Surveillance Advertising Conquered the Internet, is available open access through JSTOR and @UMinnPress's Manifold site. It's an origin story for data-driven advertising via the lens of political economy of media & tech. www.jstor.org/stable/10.57...

Now that’s good company.