1. I recently went to a talk by Emily Nussbaum about her new book "Cue the Sun!" which is about the history of reality TV. I haven't read the book yet so I can't quite recommend it but I definitely found her talk insightful. I'm by no means a reality TV fan so I suppose I went into it already with a distaste for reality TV. Nussbaum talked about the way that dating shows in particular is this ethical line that even many other reality TV show producers won't touch. The ethics of producing this real emotional response and the relationships (and marriage and kids!) that result is a thorny issue as these shows justify their existence and methods through these success stories. She also talked about the way that the participants are not treated as entertainers and thus not protected by the unions in the entertainment industry - or really treated as workers by viewers or crew members either. I will be reading her book as soon as I get my hold but in the meantime I read this article by Nussbaum about some of the recent lawsuits that Love Is Blind in particular went through.
2. In a similar vein to 1, another class of entertainers that is giving me ethical quandaries is football players, and particularly college football players. I don't watch college football - it makes me feel bad. I think a lot of people were hoping that the NIL change would help - that college players would not be paid for the work and revenue that they bring in. But the NIL threatens to make college football both more boring, where schools with richer and more spendy alumni can buy out all of the talent. It makes coaching more difficult with a constantly rotating list of starters as they try to get more money. But honestly I am not super interested in those conversations because again I'm not really a college football guy anyway. But I think the bigger issue is that NIL fails to actually protect players meaningfully. Now, there are some players with eye popping payouts but those are the minority. But most of the players, who contribute to the revenue that their schools are getting from playing, but nonetheless likely will not make the NFL and thus never get that big payday, are simply being screwed. They are working with no guarantee of making any money and with circumstances that are largely unregulated. This Bloomberg article details how the Michigan State University players were promised NIL deals that did not come to fruition and how these deals exacerbate inequities and disrupt the playing (and schooling!) for these athletes.
3. I've been really enjoying watching the GeoGuesr World Cup which I think is enjoyable even if you don't play.