Our reverence towards stars and celebrities was not borne of the 19th century’s cinematic revolution, but rather has been a resilient aspect of our culture for millennia. Ancient tales of immortal gods rising again and again after fatal injury, the veneration and deification of social and political leaders, Madame Tussauds’ wax museums and the Academy Awards’ annual In Memoriam segment, they’re are all facets of the human compulsion to put well-known thought leaders, tastemakers and trendsetters up on pedestals. And with a new, startlingly lifelike generation of generative artificial intelligence (gen-AI) at our disposal, today’s celebrities could potentially remain with us long after their natural deaths. Like ghosts, but still on TV, touting Bitcoin and Metaverse apps. Probably.Fame is the name of the gamAmerican Historian Daniel Boorstin once quipped, “to be famous is to be well known for being well-known.” With the rise of social media, achieving celebrity is now easier than ever, for better or worse.“Whereas stars are often associated with a kind of meritocracy,” Dr. Claire Sisco King, Associate Professor of Communication Studies and Chair of the Cinema and Media Arts program at Vanderbilt. “Celebrity can be acquired through all kinds of means, and of course, the advent of digital media has, in many ways, changed the contours of celebrity because so-called ordinary people can achieve fame in ways that were not accessible to them prior to social media.”What’s more,... Continue reading at 'Engadget'
[ Engadget | 2023-04-04 18:00:30 UTC ]
Multimillion fines are just the start for Facebook and Google, as the world comes to realise how political big tech has becomeIn his wonderful book The Swerve: How the Renaissance Began, the literary historian Stephen Greenblatt traces the origins of the Renaissance back to the rediscovery of a... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2017-09-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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To many Americans, large technology firms embody much of what’s good about the modern world. Google holds the key to new depths of knowledge. Amazon is the white-knight savior of impulse shopping. Facebook builds the connective tissue to old friends and colleagues. Franklin Foer has a different... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2017-09-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Among the books just snatched up in Hollywood are a nonfiction title by CNN anchor Jake Tapper, a not-yet-published book about the unheralded female rock stars of Silicon Valley, and a Spiegel & Grau-published novel about a woman who goes missing. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2017-08-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Fast Company talks with author Yuval Noah Harari, whose new book looks ahead and hazards a few guesses on what's next for humanity. Fast Company talks with author Yuval Noah Harari, whose new book looks ahead and hazards a few guesses on what's next for humanity.Yuval Noah... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2017-02-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A mobile reading app that offers short original serialized fiction, Radish has raised $3 million seed money from Silicon Valley, Hollywood, and publishing industry investments. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2017-01-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The author of Silicon Valley satire I Hate the Internet on the evils of social media, and how novelists have failed to tackle itWhen the novel I Hate the Internet came out in the US earlier this year, it had every likelihood of sinking without trace. It was self-published, it was by a young... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2016-11-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The TV-publisher love-affair isn't over yet. A&E Networks and Hearst Magazines Digital Media are partnering to run Hearst-produced branded videos on A&E's cable networks and digital properties.As part of the deal, marketers will be able to work with the digital divisions of Hearst... Continue reading at Advertising Age
[ Advertising Age | 2016-10-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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At the inaugural South by South Lawn: A White House Festival of Ideas, Art and Action on Monday, Slack co-founder Stewart Butterfield explained that it's easier to implement diversity in hiring practices when companies are small, and by doing so, companies are more likely to be aware of a... Continue reading at AdWeek
[ AdWeek | 2016-10-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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At the inaugural South by South Lawn: A White House Festival of Ideas, Art and Action on Monday, Slack co-founder Stewart Butterfield explained that it's easier to implement diversity in hiring practices when companies are small, and by doing so, companies are more likely to be aware of a... Continue reading at AdWeek
[ AdWeek | 2016-10-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A look inside the organizations advocating for the non-dominant voices in technology.Silicon Valley is a world of mirrors and myths. Every company has a creation story; most have an eccentric leader; some have had entire books written about them. The most pervasive myth out there, however, is... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2016-07-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Buoyed by the success of popular podcasts like Serial and This American Life, the Interactive Advertising Bureau is hosting its second annual Podcast Upfront this fall to bring together publishers, advertisers and agencies. Twelve media and podcast companies (up from eight last year) will... Continue reading at AdWeek
[ AdWeek | 2016-07-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Free food, sleep pods and graffiti walls. Few places are so enshrined in urban myth as Facebook, Google and other companies of their ilk. Continue reading at Stuff
[ Stuff | 2016-07-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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SILICON VALLEY — Ellen Pao, who rocked Silicon Valley with a gender discrimination lawsuit against Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers last year, signed a book deal that will detail her experiences with the tech industry’s “toxic culture.” Pao’s memoir, titled “Reset,” was acquired by the... Continue reading at Silicon Valley Business Journal
[ Silicon Valley Business Journal | 2016-06-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Digital media is arguably making its analog counterparts less important. For instance, an old vinyl album or rare CD can be streamed -- the physical version just takes up space and can be a burden. The same can be said for books -- having a house full of bound sheets of paper is sort of... Continue reading at Betanews
[ Betanews | 2016-05-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Born in India and bred in Silicon Valley, the matchmaking service for authors and publishers has already earned 130 authors $464,000 in pre-orders, produced six Amazon #1 bestsellers and secured $100,000 funding in its quest to become "the world's first true crowd-publishing platform". The pitch Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-02-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Curalate, the image monetization software provider based in Center City, just tacked on $27.5 million more in venture funding through a Series C round. Local firm First Round Capital joined the round, which was led by NEA in Silicon Valley. Curalate is now backed by more than $40 million as it... Continue reading at Silicon Valley Business Journal
[ Silicon Valley Business Journal | 2016-02-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Eight years ago, we featured the 22-year-old creator of a site with 19 million users. 1.5 billion members later, the adventure continues.In early 2007, Fast Company senior writer Ellen McGirt got a rush assignment from the magazine's editor, Bob Safian. Both were newcomers to the publication,... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2015-11-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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After 600k personalised picture-book sales, London firm secures investment from Silicon Valley firms Google Ventures and GreycroftChildren’s storytelling startup Lost My Name raised its first $100k of funding in 2014 on TV show Dragon’s Den. Now the London-based firm is turning to Silicon Valley... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2015-06-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Salvatore Rubbino gives us a tour through A Walk Through Paris, which has just won the Independent Bookshop Week children’s picture book award 2015 – including lesson on how to draw the Mona Lisa herself Continue reading... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2015-06-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The California mini-chain will add its 12th location in July 2016 in Santa Clara. In Pittsburgh, Natalie Sacco and Trevor Thomas purchased the Raven Award-winning mystery bookshop. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-05-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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