Jessica Maddox, an associate professor in the Grady College Department of Entertainment and Media Studies at the University of Georgia, has been named the inaugural Editor-in-Chief of Creator and Influencer Studies, a new fully open access journal published by Springer Nature.
The journal is described as the first academic publication devoted to research on influencers, creator culture, and content production. It is intended to provide an interdisciplinary venue for scholarship examining creator economies and the technologies shaping content creation.
The journal launch comes amid increasing policy and institutional attention on creator cultures. Examples cited include the proposed Creator Bill of Rights in the US House of Representatives and the European Union’s development of an Influencer Legal Hub.
Maddox is known for research on internet culture and digital platforms, with studies ranging from online communities to the cultural impact of digital content trends. Her published work includes the book The Internet is for Cats: How Animal Images Shape our Digital Lives (Rutgers University Press, 2023), with a second book forthcoming from the University of California Press.
As Editor-in-Chief, Maddox will lead an editorial team of associate editors including Jess Rauchberg, Adri da Rosa Amaral, Qian Huang, and Daniela Jaramillo-Dent. The journal will also be supported by an editorial board made up of emerging and established scholars in online culture studies from more than 14 countries.
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