Most often associated with influencers and content creators, the term “content” has proliferated throughout the public lexicon over the past decade. But what exactly is content? Is it a new form of creating, or marketing jargon that made its way into the water supply? Luminaries of media theory, meme historians, artists, and others explore what content is and who controls the containers.
Media theorist who coined the term “viral media,” Douglas Rushkoff, discusses the dangers of storytelling in the wrong hands, whether content can be art, and how content can connect human souls.
How did an electronic dump in West Africa lead to a spiritual subculture of catfish scams? Journalist Hannah explores the complexities of Sakawa.
How did a rough philosophy unit in 1990’s UK herald today’s world of AI generated content? Matt Colquhoun traces the lasting influence of the Cybernetic Culture Research Unit’s unorthodox mix of media theory, Jacques Derrida, Aleister Crowley, and HP Lovecraft on AI generating tools like ChatGBT.
