The default idea of tech as a neutral “tool” camouflages the way tech elites transform platforms into environments for their own gendered form of power. Our book of the week critiques a system of inclusion it calls “Big Tech Feminism.”
By Sarah Sharma on @dukepress.bsky.social
buff.ly/Mp3Ucxl
Here's the link to the free pdf of my new book The Inattention Economy: How Women of Color Built the Internet. Access is so important and I'm grateful that the press is platforming it as one file that is easy to download. www.upress.umn.edu/978081669906...
the abstract for the essay Platform authoritarianism in the creator economy
new essay on platform authoritarianism, disability, and class in creator economies out now in comm & critical/cultural studies!
www.tandfonline.com/eprint/P8HRY...
We just launched a tracker on workers' mobilization around AI in arts, culture and media. It aims to document strikes, protests, campaigns, and other mobilizations. It currently maps 107 unions, associations, collectives, across 25+ countries.
creativelabourcriticalfutures.ca/resource-fil...
New article out today with Andreas Schellewald, @krystenstein.bsky.social, Ignacio Siles, and Ellenrose Firth, in which we examine how TikTok functions like television via audiences, genres, political economy, aesthetics, and intertextual elements.
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
I wrote a short reflection on the last decade of social media. Come for the use of “schmauthenticity,” stay for the delicate balance of hope and fury.
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
New! Anuli Akanegbu’s report “(404) Job Not Found” interrogates what it means to be perceived as “AI literate” in today’s labor market, & how those perceptions are shaping the career outcomes of Black workers who are already navigating a wide range of inequities. 1/6 datasociety.net/library/404-...
“You need only know this: Whatever is happening with your data, it is important enough to the most egregiously lawless administration in American history that it be collected and consolidated.” Always read @tressiemcphd.bsky.social (gift link)
The cover page for my EJCS essay on digital freakshows
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...
Abstracts due on 12/1: I'm editing a special issue of the Int'l Journal of Communication on "the imaginative landscape of AI." Help us map the imaginaries of this stuff beyond the tech industry fluff: comai.space/en/call-for-papers-the-i...
Let Them Eat Large Language Models: Artificial Intelligence and Austerity in the Neoliberal University Martha Kenney and Martha Lincoln Abstract This article examines the expansion of generative artificial intelligence (genAI) into higher education. We argue that genAI’s incursion into university systems represents an effort by Silicon Valley to capture lucrative new markets for their products, as well as enhanced credibility by association. Drawing on our experience as faculty in the California State University (CSU) system—the first university system to contract with OpenAI to provide ChatGPT Edu system-wide—we assess the rhetoric that justifies and legitimizes genAI contracts in higher education. We suggest that the uncritical adoption of genAI in higher education poses problems for labor conditions, the integrity of intellectual property, and student learning on campuses, particularly under the conditions of austerity that are commonly found in public universities.
New preprint alert! 🚨
“Let Them Eat Large Language Models: Artificial Intelligence and Austerity in the Neoliberal University”
Just in time for Halloween, our @asapjournal.bsky.social cluster on Algorithms and the Occult is out! 👻
Featuring @emmaquilty.bsky.social, @aketchum22.bsky.social, @xrw.bsky.social, @drs.bsky.social, @serife.bsky.social, @thechristinet.bsky.social, @jessrauchberg.bsky.social, and more!
Abstract for the new Platforms & Society article "Hot tubs, yoga pants, and gamba: Twitch's controversial metas as cultural negotiations of platform governance" by CJ Reynolds.
🚨New publication alert! This one was a personal favorite of mine to work on, including fun facts about such topics as streamers farting into microphones for money. “Hot tubs, yoga pants, and gamba” is out now and open access in Platforms & Society. journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/fr/@martfoto1?utm_content=creditCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=unsplash">Martin Woortman</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com/fr/photos/un-couple-de-mannequins-debout-devant-une-structure-metallique-oQ_gZcYbx1M?utm_content=creditCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=unsplash">Unsplash</a>
[New paper] "You and TikTok are, and will remain at all times, independent contractors", By @taylorannabell.bsky.social, @sophiebishop.bsky.social, & @cgoanta.bsky.social policyreview.info/articles/ana... #TikTok #Monetisation #PlatformGovernance
Recruitment graphic for "Survey of Academic Twitter" Twitter (or X) has changed quite a lot in the past few years. I am researching how communication and media scholars use the platform and think about how it has changed. Please take this survey and share your thoughts! Contains a QR code and URL to the survey, as well as contact information for Ben Pettis <ben.pettis@richmond.edu>. Project reviewd and Approved by the University of Richmond Institutional Review Board for the Protection of Human Subjects of Research (URIRB). For more information, email irb@richmond.edu or call (804) 484-1565. Project Number: URIRB250920
I’m studying what communication and media scholars think about Twitter/X and its recent whirlwind of changes. If this sounds like you (and you've ever used twitter), please take this survey and share your thoughts.
sl.richmond.edu/Ee
And please share/circulate to help this reach the right people!
You can add up all the enjoyable pursuits of LLMs and the work productivity hacks and none of them, separately or together, will be more important than AI’s ecological costs or political disruption.
“We” is more important here.
New from 404 Media: the open-source piece of software saving the internet from AI bot scrapers. Anubis has been downloaded almost 200,000 times. We spoke to the creator: www.404media.co/the-open-sou...
OPPOSITION TO AI workshop at #cscw2025 with @saysvera.bsky.social @richmondywong.bsky.social and more... Position papers due by July 1, details and CFP at oppositiontoai.wordpress.com
The resistance is growing --JOIN US!
✨New publication! My article “The limits of 'zero tolerance' policies for animated pornographic media” just got released in @pornstudiesjournal.bsky.social!! www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Reach out if you don’t have access and want a copy (preprint below) 📩
🧵 of the findings 👇
I spoke to WaPo for this story and I think it overlooks the most interesting part. Yes tech corporations are taking a hard line (we’ve known that for a while), what’s surprising is people are still fighting back. And they will continue to do so.
www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...
Special issue on scams, fakes, and frauds in New Media & Society (2022) if you don't already have it on your list!
🔥CFP HOT OFF THE PRESS!🔥 I'm really excited to be editing this special issue on Cultural Workers and Generative AI with @grohmannrafael.bsky.social and Daphne Idiz for AI & Society. Abstract submission deadline 30th June, get in touch with questions!
MORE INFO: link.springer.com/journal/146/...
Hello I've decided to use Blue Sky now. In unrelated news, my book 'Influencer Creep' will be published with University of California press in October 2025. It's about the ways influencer culture has transformed creative work.
Preorder here: www.ucpress.edu/books/influe...
new essay with @brookeerinduffy.bsky.social out in @newsweek.com this morning!
we examine the influencer industry's oft-overlooked gender politics and what this oversight means for the future of digital work.
www.newsweek.com/when-social-...
Join us APRIL 14TH for #CCSNChats: "Archiving the Internet?" ft. Sakyra Abbitt, Camille Lawrence, Meredith Clark & Zakiya Collier!
These all-stars will discuss the practices & politics of archiving the internet in the volatile context of platforms 🔗🧵👇
www.eventbrite.com/e/ccsn-chats...
The first page of my article. Includes title, author info, abstract, and first few paragraphs of intro.
Really excited to share my latest article, "Articulating algorithmic ableism: The suppression and surveillance of disabled TikTok creators," is now published in Journal of Gender Studies!
A beautiful conversation between disability + creator studies.
Read here ↪️ shorturl.at/ft5
Hands off! Our healthcare, research, jobs National strategy call - Feb 13 National day of action - Feb 19 Rally + Press Conference - Feb 25, Washington DC
Hot take: education is a Good Thing™ and net positive for society. I guess that's why the techno-fascists are hell-bent on destroying it. Fuck 'em
#HigherEd #LaborForHigherEd
On W Feb 19 there are lots of actions planed at campuses and capitols across the nation. More info at:
labor4highered.org
Platforms aren't forever, but I predict the TikTok ban is going to hurt those who rely on the app the most: millions of American creators & small business owners as they navigate economic uncertainty and inflation.
A highly unregulated economy just became much more precarious.
