January ushered in a new year with sweeping disruptions in media, journalism, and public humanities. Technology-driven partnerships, staff cuts, and mergers have redefined the online media landscape kicking-off 2025, calling into question journalism’s position in an age of generative AI. Read the highlights below.
September News: Next Gen AI to Social Media Courtroom Drama
September’s headlines saw a change in temperature to the arts and tech worlds. Brand new AI programs hit the scene, making strides in multimodal capabilities, problem solving, and even scheming. Court cases and government bans have spelled doom for some social media platforms while giving a significant boost to others. Meanwhile novel methods of engaging with arts in communities are being tested, from state-level prescriptions to turning entire neighborhoods into galleries.
June News: Artists Take a Stand on AI
This month, it’s hard to find a headline that doesn’t mention “AI.” For artists and arts managers, it can now be integrated in every aspect of our work - from creation, to promotion, and general administration. Even your iPhone may soon have AI features integrating messages, calendar, photos, and other personal content. In both music and visual spaces, artists are finding ways to push back on unethical use – while some take legal action, others call for change through the spaces they share their work.
December News: AI, Art & Pop Culture
As 2023 comes to a close, Artificial Intelligence remains front of mind as tech giants continue to develop more powerful language models. The rapid development comes with growing concern for privacy and energy consumption. Meanwhile, arts organizations use technology to stay on top of trends - bringing popular culture into museums or adjusting to changing voice in social media. And, as the year comes to a close, the Arts Management and Technology Laboratory is taking a break for the next couple of weeks. Check back January 1 for new content, follow us on socials, or rewind to some of your favorite 2023 articles and podcasts.
TikTok Testimonies
The writing in this article is mainly based on opinion as I interpret the coverage of the testimony. The following commentary on the testimonies with links to the testimonies and relevant coverage. There are many, often heated, opinions on this topic and the hearing. Rather than simply explaining the facts of what occurred, for many people already know what occurred and I found it more beneficial to express my opinions on the case.
2023 Digital Fundraising Trends in the Performing Arts
Organizations’ marketing strategies and missions themselves may need to be reexamined to determine whether or not they align with the next generation of donors. There are a number of practices that organizations can start to embrace in order to expand their mission to a more diverse population while not running the risk of alienating their current support base.
In the News: December 2022
How the Arts Can Leverage Pinterest for Digital Engagement
The social media platform Pinterest has only been around for a decade, but it is already the third-largest social network in the U.S. Although Pinterest is such a popular sharing platform, major art organizations do not appear to be using it to its full potential. Many leading institutions do not even have a public profile, meaning that they are missing out on important digital engagement opportunities. When used strategically, Pinterest can successfully promote an entire institution, a single program, or a department.
Integrating Social Media Data Into CRM Systems: Using Your CRM To Its Full Potential
This white paper explores the importance of integrating social media data into an organization’s CRM to improve Customer Knowledge Management (CKM). By increasing the information collected CRMs can be more effective, leading to greater efficiency and productivity. Learn how arts organizations can gather more data to better understand their customers by integrating social media into a CRM system.
A Quick Roundup of January News & Social Media Updates
Getting Your Arts Organization Started On Location Based Social Marketing
Social Listening: Real World Applications
Three Unique Insights You Can Get from Social Listening
Social Listening: Are You Taking Advantage of it?
#TBT: Evolving Social Media Toolkits
Social media platforms and their users are constantly changing, making it difficult for managers to create a comprehensive social media strategy that lasts for more than a year. Still, certain guidelines for engaging your audience through social media are becoming standard. This week’s TBT takes a look at how social media concerns, techniques, and strategies have evolved in the last five years
Hollywood Stock Exchange: A League of Its Own
First launched in 1996, HSX is a free web-based multiplayer gaming simulator of American film industry. The rules are simple: players use virtual currency to buy, sell, short and cover “shares” of films, directors, actors and other related virtual securities. Although the exchange is entirely fictional, it reacts to actual industry-related news, making itself a community and information hub for both professionals and enthusiasts in the film industry.
Tweet Seat Roundup
Love them or hate them, more and more arts organizations are experimenting with tweet seats. For the uninitiated, tweet seats are a designated section of the audience where traditional etiquette rules are bent. Use of devices in this special section is not only allowed, it is encouraged. This roundup features several AMT Lab articles on tweet seats, exploring how organization have managed both their challenges and opportunities.
Research Update: Best Practices of Social Media
Social media use has become nearly universal among arts organizations. A 2012 social media study conducted by Pew Research Center demonstrated just how widespread social media usage was, with Facebook and Twitter as the most popular platforms by far. What best practices exist for social media use, and is managing more platforms necessarily better?
Growing Social: How to Make the Most of Your Organization's Social Media Efforts
As many arts marketers, social media gurus, and nonprofit professionals attest, the question for nonprofit arts organizations is no longer whether or not to use social media but rather how to use it most effectively. This shift is reflected by AMT Lab readers’ responses to our 2014 AMT Lab Reader Poll, where a whopping 76% of respondents indicated they would like to see additional research on social media analytics while only 31% indicated interest in research on social media platforms themselves.
To Tweet Seat or Not To Tweet Seat: An Insider's Perspective
The year has come full circle for me and tweet seats. From my first conversation about them last summer at the Theatre Communications Group Annual Conference to the CMU School of Music’s tweet seat initiative this past spring, the last twelve months provided an opportunity to play with this still new (and at times, controversial) audience engagement tool.