How will content moderation shape our understanding of reality? What does X's new era mean for cultural discourse? Will AI burst the personalisation bubble? In this chapter of the 2024 Expert Outlook, we speak to three experts about how social and corporate comms are set to change in 2024.
Dr. Francesca Sobande is the author of The Digital Lives of Black Women in Britain, Consuming Crisis: Commodifying Care and COVID-19, and Big Brands Are Watching You: Marketing Social Justice and Digital Culture. She is a senior lecturer in digital media studies, and her areas of expertise include popular and meme culture, Black media and visual culture, feminism and consumer culture, and brand responses to injustices and crises. Dr. Sobande’s research has been published in international journals, including Cultural Studies, Marketing Theory, Journal of Consumer Research, and European Journal of Marketing.
Matt Klein is a cultural theorist, cyberpsychologist, and marketing strategist, analysing social shifts and the psychosocial implications of our technology. Working alongside brands, TV producers, non-profits, and government agencies, Klein is a trusted source in identifying cultural change and developing future-proofed business strategies. As an award-winning writer and frequent commenter, his observations have been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Forbes, WARC, The Verge, CNBC, and Adweek.
Stephan Lewandowsky is a cognitive scientist at the University of Bristol. His research explores people’s responses to misinformation and propaganda, how corrections affect our memory, and the potential conflict between the architecture of our online information ecosystem and democracy.
Alex Strang is a senior insight editor at Canvas8 who used to be in a punk band that was signed, shaped, and spat out. He enjoys using his experience of being the product to help brands understand how to sell theirs. After studying philosophy and critical theory, he found his feet in the market research world and has been over-analysing consumer behaviour ever since, including his own. He can usually be found playing board games, watching Seinfeld, or trying too hard to make his daughter laugh.
Meme marketing is increasingly common – but more often than not, brands’ efforts fall flat as they fail to accurately decipher people’s behaviours online. Canvas8 spoke to Josh Chapdelaine about the importance of authenticity and intent when it comes to successfully communicating memetic content.
Gen Zers are invested in charitable causes, spurring donations across the board. Their desire for social justice has led brands and creators to create viral altruistic content, though ambivalent reactions highlight the fine line they walk among increasingly distrusting audiences.
Disinformation spreads like wildfire on social media, especially when it’s fueled by dark money and content farms. But what happens when generative AI like ChatGPT makes creating such material as easy as hitting enter? And what role can brands play in combating this worrying trend?
With over 30 million sign-ups just 24 hours after launching, Threads has become a serious challenger in the social media space. By making a transition to the platform as seamless as possible, the Meta-founded microblogging hub is appealing to users looking for convenience and a ready-made community.