I’m Krysten Stein, Ph.D. (she/her), an Assistant Professor of Communication at the University of Cincinnati Blue Ash College. My research examines how media industries evolve through technological change. Drawing on television studies, entertainment media, critical media industry studies, and digital media studies, I investigate how creator economies, platform governance, and digital mental health reshape systems of media production, labor, governance, commercialization, and audience engagement.
Rather than treating creator economies and digital mental health as entirely new phenomena, I situate them within longer histories of television and entertainment. Across my work, I demonstrate how emerging media industries extend and transform, rather than replace, longstanding industrial logics.
A central focus of my research examines digital mental health as an emerging media industry. My first book, And How Does That Make You Feel? Theratainment and the Digital Commodification of Mental Health (University of California Press, under contract), introduces theratainment as the convergence of therapeutic discourse and entertainment logics. The book traces the historical evolution of therapeutic entertainment from daytime talk shows and reality television to social media creators, arguing that digital platforms transform care into a site of media production, labor, commercialization, and platform governance. Building on this work, my next book project explores AI therapy chatbots and the automation of care as the next stage of media-industrial transformation.
Methodologically, I draw on critical-cultural and qualitative approaches, including in-depth interviews, digital ethnography, and discourse analysis, to examine power, labor, governance, expertise, visibility, and inequality across contemporary media systems.
My research has appeared in journals including Gender & Society, International Journal of Communication, Feminist Media Studies, European Journal of Cultural Studies, and Convergence. Beyond academia, my research informs broader public conversations about media industries, creator economies, platform governance, and digital mental health through interviews and commentary in outlets including CNN, NBC News, Business Insider, The Guardian, and The Telegraph.
I am a Research Affiliate with the Intersectional Technology Lab at the University of Michigan and the Center on Digital Culture and Society at the University of Pennsylvania. I also serve as Social Media Editor for Feminist Media Studies, sit on the Editorial Board of Creator & Influencer Studies, and am a co-founder of the Content Creator Scholars Network.
critical media industries in a platform age 