Our latest installment features a discussion with Jessica Maddox, Assistant Professor of Digital Media Technology at the University of Alabama on pushing the boundaries of what we understand about influence, creators and tech platforms. Professor Maddox provided a preview to her upcoming book, The Internet is for Cats: Attention, Affect, and Animals in Digital Sociality, scheduled to come out this…

Our nation’s copyright laws were created to foster knowledge, creativity and innovation, but there are too many examples today of how copyright law is abused to do just the opposite. When product manufacturers use copyright law to prevent consumers from repairing products they own, they stifle innovation, competition and progress.   Software is ubiquitous today – in our cars, our phones,…

It’s been 10 years since the disastrous SOPA/PIPA legislation was rejected by the American people and Congress. But what if it had passed?  We take a look back on how different our everyday lives and culture would be if SOPA PIPA had been enacted. Hollywood’s cultural gatekeepers tried to leverage their lobbying power a decade ago to decide the rules…

Our second installment features a discussion about “social media entertainment” (SME) with David R. Craig, a clinical professor at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. Professor Craig helped coin the term to characterize “a new cultural industry that is most distinguished by how creators operate off of social media platforms.” He helps explain why these new SME creators…