CDCS Colloquium: Professor Devon Powers

What is a Trend? Towards A Keyword for Media and Communication

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About the Event

What is a trend? Answering that question isn’t as straightforward as it might seem at first. A trend can be a social media phenomenon or a predilection toward a particular aesthetic. A trend can be a broad-based sociocultural dynamic or something one observes or finds in data. That trend has such a wide variety of meanings and applications is suggestive, I argue, of the concept’s importance—its emergence as a key feature of the contemporary media, cultural, and information environment. “Trend” illustrates something essential about change, and perhaps about our era. 
This talk will explore that “something” by proposing a definition and theory of trends. Rather than just a synonym for shift or change, I will argue that “trend” increasingly names both a media form and a type of media content. I will also explore how “trend” allows us to comprehend important lessons about media industries, media history, and our media environment. The talk will draw from my current book project, How Trends Work. 

About the Speaker

Devon Powers is Professor of Communication and Media at the University of Michigan.  Her research explores historical and contemporary consumer culture and the dynamics of cultural intermediation, circulation, and promotion. She is the author of On Trend: The Business of Forecasting the Future (University of Illinois Press, 2019), Writing the Record: The Village Voice and the Birth of Rock Criticism (University of Massachusetts Press, 2013), and co-editor of Blowing Up the Brand: Critical Perspectives on Promotional Culture (Peter Lang, 2010). Her academic work has appeared in Communication Theory, New Media & Society, Journal of Consumer Culture, and Creative Industries Journal, among others; she has also written for Wired, Atlantic Monthly, the Washington Post, and other popular venues.