creator trust

What Is New Media Now vs Podcasting? | Ashley Christenson / @Ashni #665

~ Rob Greenlee ~ Leave a comment

In episode 665 of the New Media Show, hosted by 2017 Podcast Hall of Famer Rob Greenlee, Rob talks with Ashley Christenson, also known as Ashni, for a deep conversation about one of the most important questions facing podcasting, streaming, creator media, startups, and traditional media right now:

What does “New Media” actually mean today?

The term “New Media” has been around since the late 1990s, but its meaning is shifting again. What once described digital media outside traditional broadcast and print is now being used by creators, VCs, startups, streaming strategists, AI companies, and professional communities to refer to something more specific: creator-led media that builds trust, influence, industry position, and direct audience relationships.

Ashley brings a unique perspective from 13 years in online media, Twitch streaming, YouTube education, startup marketing, community building, and creator strategy. She explains that she sees the creator economy as building an audience as the asset, whereas the emerging version of New Media is more about building status and position within an industry conversation. In her view, the key difference is not simply between consumer and professional audiences, but about what the media operation is designed to build and protect.

Rob brings the longer history of podcasting and digital media into the discussion, asking whether podcasting was one of the first major expressions of New Media and whether it now sits within a much larger creator-led ecosystem. The conversation explores how podcasting, YouTube, streaming video, newsletters, live shows, X, AI-generated content, and Apple Podcasts’ move toward HLS video streaming are all blurring the old lines between podcasting, creator media, and professional media.

A major theme in this episode is whether podcasting is still its own category or has become a powerful format within the broader New Media industry. Rob argues that the word “podcast” is increasingly defined by audiences and platforms, while creators may need to think more broadly as show builders, media operators, and participants in the creator economy.

Ashley and Rob also explore how X is becoming a real-time professional media layer, why founders, investors, executives, and AI builders are returning to the platform, and why companies are experimenting with live streaming, clipping, launch videos, short-form content, and creator-style formats to reach professional audiences.

The episode also moves into AI-generated media, human-hosted content, AI clones, disclosure, and trust. Rob argues that human-created and AI-created content may both need clear labeling, while Ashley points out that long-form podcasts may remain more defensible because listeners often build real relationships with hosts over time.

This conversation lands on a bigger media reality: New Media is no longer just a technology term. It is becoming a business category, a creator category, a trust category, and a professional influence category. Podcasting helped build the foundation, but the next version of New Media is broader, more video-driven, more AI-assisted, more platform-diverse, and more dependent on trust than ever before.

Key Topics:

  • What “New Media” means in 2026
  • Creator economy vs. New Media
  • Audience as an asset vs. status as an asset
  • Why podcasting helped define early New Media
  • Whether podcasters should now think more like creators and show builders
  • Apple Podcasts HLS video and the return of video podcasting
  • YouTube, Spotify, X, and the platform shift around shows
  • Why VCs and startups are using the term New Media
  • X is a professional media and live content platform
  • Traditional media is trying to become more internet-native
  • AI-generated podcasts, AI clones, and synthetic media
  • Human-hosted content, disclosure, and audience trust
  • Why long-form podcasts may remain defensible in the AI era

Chapter Markers:

00:00 Cold Open and Welcome
00:32 What Does New Media Mean
02:08 Podcasting Meets Multi Format
03:14 Meet Rob Greenlee
04:01 Introducing Ashley Christensen
04:53 Ashley’s Creator Economy Journey
08:26 AI Definitions of New Media
12:35 Creator Economy vs New Media
16:29 The Kill Switch Test
21:38 Is VC Rebranding New Media
24:10 Niche Status Media Examples
31:55 Traditional Media Goes Internet Native
34:59 Podcasting Identity and Convergence
41:35 Creator as a Catch-All Term
43:56 Naming New Media
46:11 Podcast Term Debate
51:02 X Shapes Media
55:35 X Video Creator Push
01:00:51 Twitter Podcast Roots
01:04:38 AI Flooding Podcasts
01:07:48 Human Trust Labels
01:11:34 Clones and Disclosure
01:17:49 Trust Factor Wrap
01:18:19 Closing and Where to Follow

Guest and Host Links

Guest: Ashley Christenson / Ashni

Streaming strategist, creator economy, and new media operator

Host: Rob Greenlee

About the Host/Author:
Rob Greenlee is a 2017 Podcast Hall of Fame inductee and Chair, a global new-media leader who bridges podcasting’s human roots and its AI-driven future. As founder of Trust Factor Lab and host of the “New Media Show” and “Spoken Human”, Rob helps creators start, grow, monetize, and future-proof their content. He’s held leadership roles at Microsoft, Spreaker, Libsyn, StreamYard, and PodcastOne, and serves as Chairperson of the Podcast Hall of Fame. Learn more at RobGreenlee.com and join the Trust Factor Lab Creator/Podcast Services.

Personal/AI Disclosure Note: I used AI tools to help organize and edit this episode and generate show notes. I have many hand edits; the views, clarifications, responsibility, and industry perspective are mine and my guests’. I have been working in podcasting and platform adoption for more than two decades, and this article reflects my own position. The original word choice was mine, and so is the clarification.

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When AI Content Stops Looking and Sounding Artificial | Jeanine Wright + Robert Scoble #663

~ Rob Greenlee ~ Leave a comment

New Media Show - #663 In episode 663 of the New Media Show, hosted by 2017 Podcast Hall of Famer Rob Greenlee, Rob talks with Jeanine Wright, CEO of Inception Point AI, and Robert Scoble, known as Scobleizer, Founder of AlignedNews.ai for a deep conversation about one of the biggest and most uncomfortable questions facing podcasting, video, social media, and the creator economy: what happens when AI-generated content stops sounding and looking artificial? 

I apologize for the lower audio quality of this episode, which was affected by recording source errors, and I used the best audio enhancement tools to improve it.

AI-generated media is no longer just an experiment. It is becoming shows, hosts, voices, personalities, clips, channels, avatars, and soon, live interactive media experiences.

Podcasting has always been built around voice, trust, authenticity, and human connection. But that foundation is now being challenged by AI-generated voices, cloned likenesses, synthetic video, autonomous podcasters, and AI systems that can research, write, produce, publish, and personalize content at a scale human creators cannot match.

The conversation explores whether the podcasting/new media industry is reacting too broadly by labeling AI-generated media as “AI slop” while missing the bigger shift beneath the surface.

Some AI content is low quality, deceptive, or spammy. Some AI content is becoming polished, useful, creative, and scalable. Some human-created content is also low quality, misleading, or poorly produced.

The real issue may not be whether content is human-made or AI-made.

The better question may be whether it is transparent, authentically-human, accurate, consent-based, valuable, and trustworthy.

Jeanine joins Rob to discuss what Inception Point AI is building with AI-generated personalities, autonomous creators, synthetic audio, video characters, quality control systems, and AI-native media workflows. She explains why the future may include AI podcasters, AI influencers, AI brand personalities, and AI-generated shows that serve audiences in ways traditional human production cannot easily support.

Robert brings a broader technology lens to the conversation, connecting AI-generated media to agents, real-time news systems, spatial computing, glasses, robots, synthetic people, and the next phase of human-computer interaction. He also discusses his own work using AI systems to read large volumes of AI industry activity and turn that into new forms of media intelligence.

The conversation asks whether “AI slop” is a useful label or is becoming a way to dismiss an entire category before quality, ethics, and trust systems have had time to mature.

Rob, Jeanine, and Robert also dig into the complicated issue of AI disclosure.

  • Should every AI voice be labeled?
  • Should AI-written scripts be disclosed?
  • What about human voices reading AI-written material?
  • What about cloned voices using human-written scripts?
  • And if most media becomes materially assisted by AI, will audiences still care in the same way?

The episode also explores the darker side of synthetic media, including unauthorized voice cloning, fake likenesses, impersonation, fraud, deceptive content, misinformation, platform abuse, and AI bias. The discussion makes a clear distinction between ethical AI-generated media and synthetic media designed to mislead audiences.

This is not a simple pro-AI or anti-AI conversation. It is a discussion about the future of media trust.

The bigger question is whether podcasting and new media should reject AI-generated content outright or help build better standards around disclosure, quality, consent, ownership, monetization, brand safety, platform rules, and audience transparency.

The future may not be human versus AI.

It may be human plus AI, human extended by AI, AI personalities supervised by humans, and audiences deciding what they trust based on usefulness, quality, transparency, and connection.

Key Topics Covered

  • AI-generated podcasts, video, and synthetic media
  • Why the phrase “AI slop” may be too broad
  • How AI-generated voices and video hosts are becoming more realistic
  • The difference between low-quality AI content and responsible AI media
  • Why podcasting is emotionally tied to human voice and trust
  • How AI personalities and autonomous podcasters are being created
  • What Inception Point AI is building with synthetic creators
  • Robert Scoble’s view of AI agents, X, and real-time AI media systems
  • Whether audiences care more about quality than human authorship
  • Why AI-generated content may outperform average human-created content
  • AI disclosure, labeling, and transparency challenges
  • Human voice, cloned voice, AI-written scripts, and hybrid production
  • Fraud, fake voices, synthetic likenesses, and deceptive media
  • AI bias, culture, representation, and training data concerns
  • Platform rules across YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, X, and social platforms
  • The rise of live AI-human-like media experiences
  • Human creators using AI clones and brand extensions
  • Why the future of media may be human plus AI, not human versus AI

Guest: Jeanine Wright, CEO of Inception Point AI 

Guest: Robert Scoble, Scobleizer

Host: Rob Greenlee

About the Author
Rob Greenlee is a 2017 Podcast Hall of Fame inductee and Chair, a global new media leader who bridges podcasting’s human roots with its AI-driven future. As founder of Trust Factor Lab and host of the “New Media Show” and “Spoken Human”, Rob helps creators start, grow, monetize, and future-proof their content. He’s held leadership roles at Microsoft, Spreaker, Libsyn, StreamYard, and PodcastOne, and serves as Chairperson of the Podcast Hall of Fame. Learn more at RobGreenlee.com and join the Trust Factor Lab Creator/Podcast Services.

Personal note: I used AI tools to help organize and edit this episode and generate show notes. I have many hand edits; the views, clarifications, responsibility, and industry perspective are mine and my guests’. I have been working in podcasting and platform adoption for more than two decades, and this article reflects my own position. The original word choice was mine, and so is the clarification.

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Can Indie Podcasters and Media Creators Still Win? | Dave Jackson #661

~ Rob Greenlee ~ Leave a comment

On Episode 661 of The New Media Show, host Rob Greenlee, 2017 Podcast Hall of Fame inductee, Chairperson of the Podcast Hall of Fame, and longtime new media executive, is joined by Dave Jackson, 2018 Podcast Hall of Fame inductee, founder of School of Podcasting, and Head of Podcasting at Podpage.com, for a deep conversation about whether independent podcasters and media creators can still win in today’s rapidly changing creator economy.

This episode centers on a question many creators are quietly asking right now:

Can indie podcasters still grow, monetize, and build trust in a market being reshaped by video, AI, platform control, and professionalized media production?

Rob and Dave discuss the recent combination of Podpage and School of Podcasting, why podcast education matters more than ever, and how websites, email lists, communities, video, RSS, and AI-assisted workflows are becoming essential parts of a creator’s survival strategy. Dave joined Podpage as Head of Podcasting in 2024, and School of Podcasting has been helping creators launch, grow, and monetize podcasts since 2005. 

The conversation also moves into some of the biggest issues facing podcasting and new media in 2026, including AI-generated shows, human voice and video cloning, creator burnout, YouTube’s influence on podcast identity, Apple’s HLS video podcast direction, and why human trust may become the most valuable asset creators have left.

Rob and Dave bring decades of experience to this discussion.

Both have seen podcasting shift through multiple technology waves, from the early RSS era to platform consolidation, video podcasting, AI tools, and the rise of creator-led media. That history makes this episode a practical and honest look at what indie creators need to do now to stay relevant, trusted, and discoverable.

What does this episode cover?

Can independent podcasters still succeed in a noisier, more competitive market?

What does “winning” even mean now: downloads, money, trust, community, authority, or sustainability?

Why the Podpage and School of Podcasting connection matters for podcast education and creator websites

Why podcasters need a home base beyond social platforms and YouTube

How AI is changing show notes, images, writing, research, production, and creator workflows

Why AI-generated content should not all be treated as spam, but fraud and abuse must be addressed

How human storytelling, lived experience, and trust help creators stand apart from AI content

Why video is becoming harder to ignore, but audio-only creators should not panic

How YouTube has changed public perception of what a podcast is

What Apple’s HLS video direction could mean for audio, video, RSS, and creator workflows

Why websites, email lists, communities, and audience ownership still matter

How indie creators can avoid burnout while adapting to new media expectations

Key Takeaways:

Indie podcasters can still win, but the definition of winning has changed.

Creators need more than a microphone and a media host. They need clarity, a trusted point of view, a website, a distribution plan, and a realistic path to audience growth.

AI is not going away. The smartest creators will learn how to use it without losing their human voice.

Video will continue reshaping podcasting, but not every creator has to become a full-scale video studio overnight.

Human-created content still has a powerful advantage when it is rooted in story, experience, transparency, and trust.

Websites are becoming more important again because creators need a stable home base that is not controlled by a single platform.

Podcast education matters because the barrier to starting is low, but the barrier to standing out is much higher.

Guest

Dave Jackson
Founder, School of Podcasting
Head of Podcasting, Podpage.com
2018 Podcast Hall of Fame inductee
Author of Profit From Your Podcast

Dave Jackson has been helping creators launch and improve podcasts since 2005 through the School of Podcasting. He is also Head of Podcasting at Podpage, where he supports podcasters using websites as a central hub for discovery, audience ownership, and long-term growth. (The School of Podcasting)

Guest links:
School of Podcasting: https://www.schoolofpodcasting.com/
Podpage: https://www.podpage.com/
Dave Jackson: https://davidjackson.org/
Podcast Consultant: https://www.podcastconsultant.com/

Host

Rob Greenlee
Host, The New Media Show
Podcast Hall of Fame inductee
Chairperson, Podcast Hall of Fame
Founder, Trust Factor Lab and Adore Network
Co-Founder, Passion Struck Network

Host and show links:
New Media Show: https://newmediashow.com/
Rob Greenlee: https://robgreenlee.com/
Podcast Hall of Fame: https://podcasthall.com/
Adore Network: https://adorenetwork.com/
Trust Factor Lab: https://trustfactorlab.com/
Passion Struck Network: https://passionstrucknetwork.com/
Rob on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robgreenlee/

Bottom Line in this Episode:

This episode answers a major creator economy question for 2026: Can indie podcasters and independent media creators still compete as podcasting becomes more professional, more video-driven, and more influenced by AI?

Rob Greenlee and Dave Jackson explain why the answer is yes, but only if creators evolve. The winning indie creator now needs a clear purpose, a strong human voice, trusted expertise, a discoverable website, owned audience channels, thoughtful use of AI, and a strategy that works across audio, video, search, social, and community.

The episode is especially useful for podcasters, YouTube creators, podcast consultants, media educators, creator economy leaders, podcast hosting companies, AI media startups, and independent showrunners trying to understand the next phase of podcasting and new media.

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