We learned by the mid '00s that there not are piles of new ad dollars for every new company building a business model on it. This $102B would have to come from somewhere, most likely Google Search. $102B is about half of Google's 2025 search revenue ($225B) t.co/HpTDq9FMpE
A QUT Digital Media Research Centre study led by Professor Amanda Lotz has found Australians’ social media use is far more private, varied, and personalised than thought, and that YouTube now functions less like social media and more like a vast “video encyclopedia”.
www.qut.edu.au/news?id=203994
New report drawing from our interview and survey research about social media and YouTube use with @glunardi.bsky.social eprints.qut.edu.au/264446/1/Aus...
Thanks Derek! Hope you are well!
I can’t remember when I last so devoured a book. @superwuster.bsky.social's account of the economic and social problems created by ’tech companies’ is daunting but offers evidence of recovery from corporate capture and wealth gaps that leaves needed hope. www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/691177...
Audio from a presentation of preliminary findings from interviews part of our Media Uses in the 21st Century research. I promise we are writing, sooooo much data! @glunardi.bsky.social
New episode! (Finally!) @meesk.bsky.social and @drtvlotz.bsky.social chat about Lotz’s 2025 book After Mass Media, which explores how industrial shifts and technological changes have reshaped the entertainment landscape, as well as academic approaches to the media industries. aca-media.org/episode82
Media and technology criticism masterclass here. Great teaching tool
To understand Netflix, we have to hold two somewhat contradictory ideas at the same time: Netflix is a significant provider in the US media ecosystem, but strategy for the US market does not drive its overall operation in the way historically the case of US screen industries.
In testimony last week, Sarandos reported 86 million US Netflix subscribers.
At 86m US subs, Netflix reaches 69% of US households – a lot relative to other services.
But per the recent Netflix global subs numbers, that also means the US accounts for only 28% of Netflix’s subscriber base. 1/2
Fair, from a viewer perspective that doesn't make sense; the argument is more aimed industrial questions/categorizations. I thought a lot about Legitimating TV in writing and how the demands of the industrial-grade model were at the root of critiques rather than 'TV', so thanks back at you!
Thank you for this Mike! I held my breath waiting for the "but..." I really appreciate you taking the time to review it so closely and am extraordinarily gratified you appreciated chapter 5 (which I still worry will make many throw the book across the room and have me banned from SCMS) 😉
Rethinking watching: A viewer-centred approach to understanding the changing audience experience. Amanda D. Lotz (Queensland University of Technology, Australia), Catherine Johnson (University of Leeds, UK), Jonathan Gray (University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA)
This article draws from studies of contemporary watching to reframe screen audience studies to manage the behaviours, modes, and motives of watching that transcend television, streaming, and social media.
Read the full article here: journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
@drtvlotz.bsky.social
This is becoming very true of broadcast television as well (though difficult to show b/c of consolidated financial reporting).
Thanks to Leslie Kreiner Wilson for the chance to talk about why I wrote After Mass Media and the challenges being 'after' mass media has for understanding media’s still important role in society.
americanpopularculture.com/journal/arti... @nyupress.bsky.social
3..people have a lot of other places to spend that attention. Metrics like number of users and time spent using obscure the reality of what people do and value about using social media. TLDR: Attention machine broken and regular people use very differently than those into/writing about media/tech.
2..yet what people report most preferring to see is content from friends. The attention machine makes its money on less preferred features, and people complain about the increasing number of ads they see in feeds. The product people want is not well aligned to what makes Meta the most money and ..
We’ve been interviewing people about what they ‘do’ when using social media. Preferred use is messaging people and sharing content privately/watch-reading what is sent privately—which are features without ads. Stunningly few report posting to feeds or stories at all...
Senator Ruben Gallego has introduced Senate legislation to outlaw surveillance pricing.
Surveillance pricing is yet another way for corporations to pull one over on you.
Watch former FTC Chair Lina Khan explain the dangers of this shady practice. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cbtUYshYM8
Yep, that’s my 2025. Very grateful (so, so grateful) to the voices/minds behind thes pods; I’ve learned so much and they get me through the torturous gym sessions required to keep this body moving. 🙏 @edzitron.com @hcrichardson.bsky.social @eshap.bsky.social @pkafka.bsky.social
Shows that stay with me is probably my favorite category, and yes, Hal and Harper leads that list this year. A good read
An extraordinary loss of a generous and bold thinker
And if you've never watched Lina Khan, I'd encourage you to check out @hcrichardson.bsky.social's interview with her last week. She's refreshing, whip-smart, and everything we need more of as a party: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ydxk...
Your team would be an ideal independent launch and these posts are a who's who of people who can make that happen quickly. Happy to jump on a call or Zoom if you are interested and want help.
Lina Khan in conversation with @hcrichardson.bsky.social about the history of antitrust and the future of the Democrats. Watch! 📺
substack.com/@linamkhan/n...
here (just the first section, 20 min), because it is dense and may be more understandable in my voice. Also, I love a publishing experiment.
youtu.be/VEwinLi3vD4
quite different businesses at increasingly different scales that need correspondingly different conceptualization.
A more accessible (and not so deeply nerdy) version of this thinking is in sections 4-7 of Media 2025. www.amandalotz.com/tag/media-20...
And you can watch me read the intro...
This new article brings the current dynamics of the ‘creator economy’ (hosted distribution) into conversation with decades of explaining how creative autonomy is constrained in commercial mediamaking. This lets us explore how the ‘creator’ sector encompasses journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
