Quarterly Learnings Report Q1 2026
Blake Hallinan
I launched PAY4PLAY: Entrepreneurial Organizing in the Platform Society at the start of the year with lots of grinding and little ceremony, which I’m saving until after I assemble more of the team. PAY4PLAY is a five-year project devoted to investigating how creators come together and create value on digital platforms, and the kinds of value—economic, social, political—they create. The team will include a postdoctoral research assistant, three PhD fellows, and student research assistants, along with affiliated researchers like Maria Rasskazova, CJ Reynolds, D. Bondy Valdovinos Kaye, and Landrous Xinyue Shen.
Q1 2026 has been a building phase for personnel and research datasets. On the personnel side, I’ve hired an excellent MA student research assistant, I’m finalizing the paperwork for the postdoc, and I’ve just closed the application for the first PhD fellow focused on video game creators. On the research side, I’m working with a longitudinal dataset of YouTubers talking about leaving the platform and a boutique dataset of X threads where creators—primarily live streamers and webcam models—discuss their experiences with refunded tips and subscriptions. And while all of that is being set up, some preliminary studies I conducted with collaborators on creator governance are making their way into the conference programs of the International Communication Association and the European Communication Conference. Much more, including 19 additional Quarterly Learnings Reports, to come!
Personnel:
Manon Raynaud joined the team as an MA student research assistant. Manon is in her second year of the Human Security program, studying far-right mobilization on YouTube. She brings her platform expertise to the project “Goodbye YouTube! A Longitudinal Analysis of Creators Leaving the Platform,” where she’s already assembled a dataset of nearly 13,000 “quit vids” where YouTubers talk about leaving the platform, dating from 2006-2025. In the upcoming quarter, she’ll work with BA students on a content analysis of the videos, focusing on what it means to be a YouTuber, how YouTubers interact with their audiences, and why they leave—and if they return.
We ran a job search for a Postdoctoral Researcher in Digital Methods and received many talented and interesting applicants. The hiring process at Aarhus University is thorough. First, the hiring committee reviews the materials submitted by the applicants and makes a short list of candidates who best meet the assessment criteria outlined in the job call. Second, the short list is sent to an assessment committee composed of senior faculty members, who closely read the materials and write an assessment of each candidate’s qualifications. These assessments are sent out to the applicants, and then we get to the third stage: interviews. The hiring committee conducts remote interviews (thanks, MS Teams!) with the qualified applicants, ranks them, and makes a job offer. We’re finalizing the paperwork from the search but keep your eyes open for some exciting news in the next report.
We just closed the application window for the PhD Research Fellow focused on video game creators in the sub-project “Cultures of Participation within and among Creator Communities.” The fellowship is a three-year position that, if all goes well, will start in September 2026.
Research:
The “Goodbye YouTube” dataset features nearly 13,000 videos of YouTubers talking about leaving the platform, published from 2006—2025. The dataset is part of two studies; the first, led by Blake Hallinan and Manon Raynaud, is a cultural history of the platform seen through a series of goodbyes, and the second is an economic analysis of creator labor led by Maria Rasskazova.
The “Bad Refunds” dataset is a boutique collection of threads on X about creator experiences with social transactions (e.g., tips, subscriptions) that get refunded by the platform or charged back by the credit card company. Blake Hallinan is working with the dataset to understand how creators navigate the financial risks of social transactions by providing peer support and calling out bad actors.
Upcoming events:
Blake Hallinan will present “Alternative Wikis, Fans, and the Codification of Copyright Norms,” at the 76th annual conference of the International Communication Association in Cape Town, South Africa, in June. The paper, co-authored with CJ Reynolds, D. Bondy Valdovinos Kaye, and Landrous Xinyue Shen, uses data from Wikitubia, a fan wiki devoted to YouTubers, to track informal practices of platform governance around copyright by creators and their audiences.
Blake Hallinan will present “Anticipatory (Non)compliance: How AI Streamers Monetize the Content Moderation Game” at the 11th European Communication Conference in Brno, Czech Republic, in September. The paper, co-authored with CJ Reynolds, investigates how AI agents transform practices of content moderation on social media through the case of Neuro-sama, the most successful AI VTuber.