For over a decade, USC Annenberg Associate Professor David Craig has been conducting research about the structural and material conditions that distinguish global, Chinese, and peripheral creator and influencer cultures, industries, and economies.
Along with more than three dozen journal articles, his co-authored books include Social Media Entertainment, Creator Culture, and Wanghong as Chinese Social Media Entertainment. His most recent book, Apocalypse Television, recounted how a television program contributed to the end of the 20th Century Cold War. With co-author Tanner Mirrlees, he is writing books about Creator Nationalism and Global Entertainment Media in the Creator Age, while also co-editing the Routledge Companion to Creator and Influencer Studies. Along with teaching graduate courses in media and creator industries, he is the USC director of the dual master’s program in global media and communication in partnership with the London School of Economics, a visiting scholar at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in the Institute for Cultural and Creative Industries, a recent Global Fulbright Scholar, and, this coming year, a Visiting Fellow at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to his academic career, Craig was a Hollywood producer and television executive responsible for over 30 films, TV programs, web series, documentaries, and stage productions that garnered over 70 Emmy, Golden Globe, and Peabody awards and nominations as well as an LGBTQ media activist.
