This week, from the 16-21 July is Prime ‘Day’, where many consumers are enticed to Amazon’s marketplace for great deals. But our researchers noticed something strange in Amazon's search results and its algorithmic recommendations: sometimes, cheaper items that ship faster are invisible in searches, and the 'Amazon recommends' offer is nearly twice as expensive as the best deal! It's not clear what's happening here, but legally, Amazon could be in trouble under Australian consumer law.

The 2023 writers’ guild and SAG-AFTRA strikes highlight rampant exploitation and distributional wealth inequality in the content industries. There are a variety of reasons for the dominance of corporations over creators and the public. It is an opportune moment to unmask copyright law as a tool of monopoly…

The streaming platforms (‘SVOD platforms’) are our popular destination for consumption of enjoyable video content. The line taken in the previous blog post was that society desires diverse video content, even if the consumer themselves does not always recognise this desire. If consumers demand the content, supply and demand would suggest that the streaming platforms would offer diverse content, right? This is more complicated than first thought. ‘What makes the platforms tick?’ - that is the question.

Cultural conversations are valuable. Cultural conversations necessitate a diverse range of content or, in the words of Jonathan A. Knee, ‘a deep inventory of long-tail content, sprinkled with some newer material, and a great recommendation’. The inclusion of all persons in these conversations becomes an important issue for research. The next blog post will interrogate the current system of distribution.