I have a thought about americans and subdisciplinary conflation but I will keep it to myself for now :)
jess rauchberg
@jessrauchberg.bsky.social
Assoc. editor, CREATOR & INFLUENCER STUDIES Writing PLATFORM HYGIENE (Duke UP) Repped by Aevitas Creative Management Hot takes are my own! www.jessrauchberg.com
I think Sarah Banet-Weiser's "popular feminism/popular misogyny" framework captures this most accurately: since 2014 or so there's been amplification of BOTH popular progressive & popular reactionary movements. Less an index of political change than what media makes possible/legible/profitable.
Astra Taylor@astra.bsky.social · 3d agoa pretty heated debate over "woke 1.0" is taking place on X (and maybe here?). no one asked, but I’m officially registering my dislike of the phrase. i hope it has its moment and fades for the following reasons. ultimately, i think its just going to muddle otherwise important conversations…🧵
The entire Hot Take economy is people who would have passed their lives in comfortable near-anonymity as columnists for a regional newspaper or some third-rate national magazine in the past, but now those jobs do not exist so they cook their brains to generate a middle-class income on Substack.
mtsw@mtsw.bsky.social · 4d agotempted to come up with some elaborate theory about sunscreen denialism, but I genuinely think it's mostly a case of the increasing salience being stupid has in our political divide
big news: starting next month, I join @leedsunimedia.bsky.social as a Lecturer of Media & Communication! I've always admired the SMC's strengths in critical media representation & cultural industries research. Excited to join my new colleagues, and Leeds will be the perfect home for my research!
New paper co-written with @idilg.bsky.social out now in @ejcs-journal.bsky.social: 🫠 Degenerative AI: AI slop, brainrot, and the gimmick of generative culture doi.org/10.1177/1367...
hard launching something (professionally) cool, new, scary, etc.... watch this space!
I am always trying to explain to folks that most Americans have never met a Jew and people do not believe me and I just need you to understand that the perception that we are a powerful group in this country is intentionally created by antisemites and you’re unknowingly buying in.
Joel S.@joelhs.bsky.social · 3w agoThis actually explains something about how people talk about the Jewish community.
New research suggests that LLMs can develop their own biases from experience, separate from their training data. This can lead them to stereotype job applicants even more than humans do. www.technologyreview.com/2026/07/20/1...
AI is more likely than humans to form biases when hiring
AI doesn’t just learn stereotypes from its training. It can cook up new ones, too.
technologyreview.com
rip bret easton ellis you would've loved music, fashion, film
leaving the professional organisation industrial complex (or at least one little sector of it, finally)
A local journalist posted about local cases of the diarrhea thing. I realized…our public restroom shortage is about to be a crisis. People are not paid enough to maintain the few bathrooms that exist!! My god.
at the point of my career where I'm scouring databases for academic writing on "baby's first fandom"
New article ⬇️⬇️⬇️ Leer, K., McCarroll, A. Cozy gaming: investigating how gamers use TikTok for digital resistance. In: Creator and Influencer Studies. 1, 3 (2026). doi.org/10.1007/s445...
Cozy gaming: investigating how gamers use TikTok for digital resistance - Creator and Influencer Studies
Cozy games are a genre marked by elements designed to evoke feelings of safety, abundance, and softness. The rising popularity of this genre is often misattributed to increased desires for escapism and avoidance of the real world. However, TikTok cozy gaming influencers reimagine gameplay as a vehicle for community care, identity expression, and digital resistance in the face of systemic oppression on digital platforms. This study examines how TikTok’s algorithmic governance affords unique avenues of self-expression and collective mobilization for women of color gamers, particularly how they negotiate the tensions between coziness as self-care and its commodification. We employed a mixed-methods approach, content analysis with a semi-structured interview of a prominent cozy gaming content creator. After a systematic search for cozy videos on TikTok, we were left with a final sample of 52 TikTok posts. Videos were coded for aesthetic and production elements, identity markers, and activity affordances related to emotional well-being and digital connection. The interview data provided qualitative contextual insights into the motivations, experiences, and community practices of creators. Our content analysis developed three primary themes: identity and representation in the cozy gaming community, cozy gaming as a therapeutic practice, and the commodification of coziness. Explicit references to race (17%, N = 9) and gender (35%, N = 19) appeared less frequently but were discussed more directly and in greater detail in the interview. Findings from this study suggest that women of color utilize cozy gaming to foster online communities, while also managing tensions between authenticity, community, and digital labor.
doi.org
pleased to say I haven't stopped thinking about them
jess rauchberg@jessrauchberg.bsky.social · 3mo agoi can't stop thinking about the montreal canadiens
hot takes that shouldn't be hot takes: porn is a cultural industry
We are also accepting submissions for three special issues: Reconsidering visibility and value in the creator economy; Misogynoir, the manosphere, and content creation as Black media battlegrounds; and Health Professionals as Creators and Influencers. More info here: link.springer.com/journ…
REMINDER!! Creator & Influencer Studies is open for article submissionsI also have 20 article process charge (APC) waivers to use before the end of the year, so submit now!
currently working on a project about this and it says so much about the memefication of automation (spoiler alert: IT'S NOT GOOD)
Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 2mo agoI bet all you killjoys have never considered the hilarious aspects of the surveillance state.
I'm not falling for the good culture cottage cheese industrial complex. real ones know: it's turner's
CFP!! Society for the Study of Affect's MAKE conference in Vancouver: October 23-25, 2026. Consider submitting your proposals to any one of 26 streams. But I am particularly partial to number 8...we are looking for some very dirty submissions! Send it to us by May 29! Links to follow:
Blaming Fetterman’s and Dart’s politics on brain injury is a form of ableism that allows people to avoid the way their politics perfectly align with a hegemonic vision of white masculinity.
my chem tegan & sara the front bottoms the smashing pumpkins the hallucination green day robyn torres the mountain goats wolf parade (pending...)
Noah Berlatsky@nberlat.bsky.social · 3mo agoMelvins All Natural Johnny Cash Wanda Jackson Melt Banana Aaron Lee Tasjan Babymetal Jeff Parker
new subjectivity might be loading. key word on might.
there's a better way to do all of this. we cannot build a better internet studies if we're just using peer review to tear down our colleagues.
Jess Maddox@jessmaddox.bsky.social · 3mo ago2. You only recommend things you’ve been interviewed in to improve the quality of the submission. 3. You deliberately say hi to your friend in your review. Rejections happen, and that’s cool. It’s part of the game. But can we please bring the “peer” back to peer review?
For the reviewer 2s of the world: if you want to be jerks, you do you. But ways people in a smalle, niche field can figure out it’s you: 1. You only recommend your own work as things to improve the quality of the submission. (Continued)