In an era of curated feeds and ‘brand-safe’ personas, messy, relatable content offers a strange kind of relief.
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AI slop was the clear winner with honourable mentions including another AI-related word: clanker. But where are the colourful expressions of previous years?
Imagination is a fundamental tool for everyday life. Unsurprisingly, many kids harness it during athletic play, conjuring a fun teammate, a supportive coach or a worthy opponent.
What appears to be normal social media activity exposes a much darker reality: fan culture often leads to deeply harmful conversations shaping how people address and redress violence.
Our relationships with characters from books and screen – called parasocial relationships – serve many of the same functions as our friendships with real people, minus the infection risks.
Teens who see alcohol on TV are more likely to drink. A marketing professor explains how to counter this phenomenon.
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Professor of Marketing, Pepperdine University
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