Podcast
fromThe Atlantic
1 day agoHow Short-Form Clips Took Over the Internet
Short video clips from long-form content have become the dominant unit of online media, surpassing traditional promotional roles.
Maria explains that Russia's non-religious stance means anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment is not driven by the Bible, unlike in the United States. Instead, it originates from prison culture, particularly after Stalin's release of inmates post-WW2.
The discoverability problem is that the medium still hasn't figured out a reliable, easily reproducible way to capture and hold a listener's attention. It's easier to stumble upon video curated and served via algorithm than it is to click several buttons in a dedicated app in order to listen to a piece of audio.
Anyone who spends untold hours surfing the Web for humorous content will eventually find the work of one Vladimir Shmondenko, a prankster who goes by the name Anatoly. He's developed a faithful following, and, as far as I can tell, makes a comfortable living entirely from his TikTok and YouTube videos.
I think of my dad, the 21-year-old broadcast journalism major said, explaining that he is a business owner who works in finance, not exactly the most trendy, fashionable guy. Watching from home was the subject of the joke himself: McCrary Mac Lowe. His reaction, a blend of disbelief and amusement, was captured by his wife, Shannon, who filmed the moment and later posted it to Instagram.
The TikTok video starts with Jess saying: "Female-to-male trans (people) and first time moms: y'all need to get together and decide who gets to keep the FTM acronym." She can hardly keep a straight face as she continues: "In my local neighbourhood giveaway group, this woman posted 'FTM: looking for boy clothes', and to be fair, she said 'boy'. That should have been my first clue."
At least a lot of Hollywood was willfully ignoring the potential of YouTubers here. There is that level of respect that I just haven't met yet. People have made movies before, just that it would be 'woefully unwise' to tackle writing, directing, acting and editing a movie myself.
The rise of TikTok and YouTube has dramatically changed the lives of content creators by turning social media into a legitimate career path rather than just a hobby. These platforms allow ordinary people to build massive audiences without traditional media connections, often through algorithm-driven exposure.
"One of them caught our eye, the one in the center," Herzog explains as he narrates the documentary. "He would neither go toward the feeding grounds at the edge of the ice, nor return to the colony. Shortly afterward, we saw him heading straight for the mountains, some 70 kilometers away. Doctor Ainslie explained even if he caught him, and brought him back to the colony, he would immediately head right back for the mountains. But, why?"
Davidson's debut episode, featuring Machine Gun Kelly, is assembled from the rough, requisite symbols of podcasting: host and guest sunk into plush, beat-up chairs vaguely facing each other, chatting and smoking cigarettes in a space that's presented as Davidson's garage, Benjamin Moore paint tubs doubling as an ashtray stand. Good pals, their conversation is loose and circuitous; their discussion drifts from adventures while getting high, stints in rehab, and - because this is the first episode - what a podcast even is.
No one could accuse Fleming of tailoring his act to please a conventional audience. His stage attire lies somewhere between "androgynous hipster" and "clown," and his only criteria for a premise appears to be "What does my brain fixate on?" He expects his audience to keep up with any cultural reference his Massachusetts-born, millennial, Skidmore arts-graduate brain might make without ever stopping to explain what, say, "Gatsby-esque" might mean in the context of Bitmoji.
At the box office earlier this month, four out of the five top-grossing movies were not from big companies. There was Solo Mio, an inspirational romantic drama starring Kevin James from the faith-based distributor Angel Studios; a filmed concert from the K-pop group Stray Kids; and a French adaptation of Dracula from the director Luc Besson that had already made big money overseas.
Dhar Mann's morality tales about Karens getting exposed, kids with disabilities finding acceptance, and the like have made him one of the internet's most popular creators. He also stands out in a mostly unscripted world for his focus on scripted content, including a recent micro-drama production deal with Fox. His videos, shot in a 125,000 square-foot Burbank production studio, regularly run 20 minutes or longer and get upward of a million views on YouTube.