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The influencer industry has become a huge thing as all these people online who do this for a living or, you know, who don't do it for a living. We talk about the blogging era and how that kind of merges into the social media era. And we also talk about what is it actually like to be in this kind of industry? What is it like to constantly have the pressure to produce content?"

Paris Marx is joined by Emily Hund to discuss the creation of the influencer industry, how it’s been formalized by companies who profit from it, and what can be done to make it fairer for the people who work in it.

Emily Hund is the author of The Influencer Industry: The Quest for Authenticity on Social Media. She’s also a research affiliate at the Center on Digital Culture and Society at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication. Follow Emily on Twitter at @emilyadh.

Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, and support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is produced by Eric Wickham and part of the Harbinger Media Network.

Also mentioned in this episode:

An excerpt of Emily’s book was published in Wired.
After Elon Musk took over Twitter, a menswear account was suddenly in everyone’s feeds.
Instagram is offering a paid subscription service that includes customer service.
Countries have begun regulating the influencer industry. For example, Norway requires retouched photos to be labeled, while France has an even stricter law that regulates the types of products that can be promoted along with other requirements.

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