Tag: Taylor Lorenz

Tween podcasters with high-end mics, massive followings, and brand deals from major companies are suddenly everywhere, building significant media platforms. New York Magazine’s EJ Dickson joins Taylor Lorenz to break the tween podcast space and why it’s exploding. They discuss the MD Foodie Boyz, SaltyBoys, GSD Nation, the LOL Pod, and more.

They talk about the ethics of kids content creation, examine how kid-led podcasts are mirroring the formats and attitudes of older influencers, from Joe Rogan to the Paul brothers, and, how as more kids turn the mic on themselves and start broadcasting their opinions, these shows are reshaping the media landscape for the next generation.

Alice Marwick is one of the top academics in the country studying kids and technology and social media use. She is co-director of The Center for Information, Technology, and Public Life at UNC and Director of Research at the Data & Society Research Institute. She recently sat down with me for a Q&A about her research and a big report that she and other top researchers in the field put out about kids and social media use.

In the report, they make it clear that this freak out about the impact of social media and smartphones on kids is a classic moral panic, not even remotely backed up by the data that they and other top researchers have collected for decades. Alice debunks common misconceptions about kids and technology use, calls out bad actors like Jonathan Haidt who use this moral panic to push anti-LGBTQ and censorship laws, and she details the harms of cutting young kids off from the media and technology of their time.

rom Ohio to North Dakota, thousands of people have suddenly gotten brand new newspapers delivered to their doorsteps. At first glance, they look legit. But these newspapers are fake news outlets created by the oil and gas industry to influence public opinion.

Top investigative journalist Miranda Green has been uncovering these oil and gas-backed news outlets and websites. She joins Taylor Lorenz to talk about how these shady publications are mimicking legitimate local newspapers to spread propaganda and influence public opinion, especially around climate change and other major political issues.​

There’s evidence that the recent $666 million judgment against Greenpeace related to the Dakota Access Pipeline protests was issued by a jury that was influenced by these fake newspapers. Miranda reveals the oil and gas industry’s local news playbook, how to find/identify these websites and papers, and what the oil and gas industry has planned next.

Utah just became the latest state to pass a major law claiming to “protect child influencers.” The law has been celebrated across the internet. But according to experts, the law won’t “protect” child influencers. It is deeply flawed, counterproductive, and dangerously irresponsible. It has major free speech implications and could be used to censor journalistic work and reporting.

Taylor Lorenz: “It took me weeks of reporting to put together this deep dive and to speak to nearly a dozen actual free speech and legal experts about this law, something not a single mainstream media journalist did. I do not make ANY money from these videos, so if you want to support me, please consider buying a yearly subscription to my tech & online culture newsletter: https://www.usermag.co“

In 2017, the Resistance movement exploded across America with massive protests, hashtags, and nonstop anti-Trump content. The Resistance birthed a powerful group of anti-Trump influencers, podcasts, Twitter accounts, and personalities. But fast forward to today and Liberals have all but stopped resisting. Resistance influencers who once railed against Trump now openly support him, and progressive movements have been significantly hollowed out. What happened?

Taylor Lorenz dove deep into the Resistance movement to unpack how it arose, who benefitted from it, and, ultimately, how Democratic leaders, resistance influencers, and mainstream media gradually embraced the exact ideology they so vocally claimed to oppose.

Could it be that this movement has been mostly “desktop warriors”?