Hanna Kahlert

Hanna is one of our expert analysts, helping drive MIDiA’s research into the future of digital entertainment. Her key areas of interest are cross-entertainment audience behaviour, the creator economy, and social platforms.

What happens to entertainment in a gamified US economy?

Hanna Kahlert

15 Apr 2025

Cultural trends US News

Key takeaways from this blog: President Trump'sproposed tariffshave shaken the stock market, with trust in the US economy weakening Unpredictable policies, including the US TikTok ban, are making conditions difficult for businesses that operate across multiple countries With this uncertainty in the ...

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Online culture is fragmenting: Why White Lotus spoilers are not flooding the internet

Hanna Kahlert

9 Apr 2025

Cultural trends TikTok Streaming

Key takeaways from this blog: Audience fragmentation is growing, with platforms like TikTok losing influence and shows like White Lotus thriving in niche, offline conversations Oversaturation of content is making it hard for entertainment to create shared cultural moments As MIDiA explores in our 'A...

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If the internet dies, where does all the attention go?

Hanna Kahlert

2 Apr 2025

Cultural trends TikTok Instagram

Key takeaways from this blog: Social platforms dominate culture, but a vibe shift toward offline experiences is emerging as users crave more intentional, less addictive engagement (as explored in MIDiA's' Analogue revival ' report) TikTok’s recent disruption signals a loss of cultural centrality, ...

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Why ads in DMs are not the solution Instagram wants them to be

Hanna Kahlert

18 Mar 2025

Audience Insight Instagram advertising

Key insights from this blog: Instagram's direct messaging features have become a core component of the platform; MIDiA data highlights that the majority of social media users log in to the platform to keep up to date with friends As Instagram's Feeds – and subsequently its Stories feature – have...

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Meritocracy only works if the door is open in the first place: International Women’s Day in 2025

Hanna Kahlert

11 Mar 2025

Cultural trends consumers women in music

Key insights from this blog: This International Women's Day, celebrations of women's accomplishments were overshadowed by industry developments and political decisions Women are consumers too – it is in businesses' best interest to give women access to the rooms where the decisions about events, p...

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YouTube is winning emerging markets by being social – and format-flexible

Hanna Kahlert

5 Mar 2025

Audience Insight Cultural trends YouTube

In English-speaking markets (and much of Europe), entertainment consumption is split across a large number of digital platforms, segmented largely by content format, rights access, and legacy uptake. It is also fragmented across devices: smart TVs, smartphones, laptops, and consoles all play big rol...

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Social 2025
Navigating platforms for fan power

Hanna Kahlert

19 Feb 2025

Creators Spotify Social

The biggest apps are in the process of disruption. TikTok’s uncertain future and Meta’s apps relaxing content restrictions and fact checking will constitute greater challenges for creators, advertisers, and audiences looking to use and benefit from these platforms.

DeepSeek and Rednote signal the dawning era of APAC

Hanna Kahlert

29 Jan 2025

Business Strategy Netflix TikTok

The AI race is a tense one. Billions of dollars have been poured into the likes of OpenAI. Meanwhile, the US and UK governments, among others, have pledged to invest heavily in AI development, suggesting that they feel it is of critical importance to “win” the new space race.

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Creators and the creator economy
Defining the undefinable

Karol Severin, Hanna Kahlert and Ben Woods

24 Jan 2025

Creators Cultural trends Creator economy

20 years since the launch of YouTube, the creator economy is not new – but it lacks a single clear definition. Different interest groups who interact with it all have their perspectives, but this lack of consistency can result in misunderstandings at best and strategic missteps at worst.

Ban or no ban, what comes next for TikTok creators?

Hanna Kahlert

22 Jan 2025

Marketing Strategy YouTube TikTok

The TikTok ban saga continues. The official date of the ban saw the app go dark in the US and Canada, replaced by a notice that the law had come into effect. However, only a few hours later, the app came back online, with a new notice that thanks to the Trump administration’s willingness to work o...

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Meta pushes for “free speech” as TikTok falls short: a dramatic cultural shift for social

Hanna Kahlert

15 Jan 2025

Business Strategy Facebook TikTok

The news cycle leaves no room to draw breath as strategic pivots and Supreme Court hearings come thick and fast. Changes are afoot – and they paint a very different picture of the digital landscape of the future.

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Musk calls UK government ‘tyrannical’ and TikTok could leave the US: is global culture going regional again?

Hanna Kahlert

7 Jan 2025

social media, tiktok ban elon musk

A swath of elections in 2024 have paved the way for regulatory changes in the social media sphere, with talk of bans and restrictions meeting the governmental meddling of CEOs like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg.

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Social platform user behaviour
Q3 2024

Hanna Kahlert

19 Dec 2024

Marketing Strategy

Competition among social platforms is intensifying, with attention largely saturated and new regulations poised to upset the balance of power among incumbents. While growth is left in the overall market, it will largely be driven by YouTube and a cohort of smaller disruptor platforms – with fragmentation happening as these disruptors begin to eat...

A regulation-heavy year for social looms in 2025

Hanna Kahlert

17 Dec 2024

Social media Social Product Strategy

The UK’s communications regulator, Ofcom, has published guidelines around the Online Safety Act, warning that most social platforms are not adequately meeting standards. Sites that fail to comply can be faced with high fines and potential bans (per The Guardian ).

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Will the TikTok ban happen? What you need to know

Hanna Kahlert

10 Dec 2024

tiktok ban Donald Trump Social media

It has been a rollercoaster of a news year for TikTok since April, when President Biden signed a law that would ban the platform unless it found new owners. The January 19th deadline is approaching quickly, and the heat is up as of December 6th, when the Federal Appeals court upheld the ban.

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MIDiA's 2025 predictions webinar slides
It's social's stage now

Mark Mulligan, Karol Severin, Hanna Kahlert, Tatiana Cirisano, Ben Woods, Rutger Rosenborg, Rhys Elliott and Olivia Jones

6 Dec 2024

Free Report

Spotify YouTube Twitch

MIDiA's expert analysts dive into our 2025 predictions for the music, social, video, audio, and games industries – and explain why we believe "it's social's stage now".

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MIDiA’s 2025 predictions
It’s social’s stage now

Mark Mulligan, Karol Severin, Hanna Kahlert, Tatiana Cirisano, Ben Woods, Rutger Rosenborg, Rhys Elliott and Olivia Jones

5 Dec 2024

Apple Spotify YouTube

The creator economy reshaped entertainment in the first half of the 2020s and social wasthe big winner, now positioned at the centre of the entertainment economy. In 2025 wewill see the second-order effects begin to play out, set against the backdrop of attentionsaturation, content commodification, and increased focus on profit.

Australia bans social media for under-16s: the first domino towards a new digital world?

Hanna Kahlert

3 Dec 2024

regulation age restriction australia social media ban

Australia has just approved groundbreaking social media regulation that bans users under 16 from accessing platforms like Snapchat, TikTok, Facebook, and X. This under-16 social media ban is the first of its kind that does not allow exceptions for existing users or those with parental permission.

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Why social media regulation could be a boost for the creator economy

Hanna Kahlert

26 Nov 2024

TikTok Social media platforms

TikTok’s future hangs in the balance, with its January deadline to find a new owner fast approaching beneath the oversight of a new, and unpredictable, US administration. President Trump originally tried to ban the app himself in 2020 by executive order, which failed.

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The BlueSky migration: How cultural shifts can disrupt even the most established social media platforms

Hanna Kahlert

19 Nov 2024

Bluesky mastodon Twitter

Twitter clones have proliferated since Elon Musk first bought and renamed the platform to X in 2022. Despite a lot of buzz around platforms like Mastodon and BlueSky, none have seemed to capture a significant audience, with X’s weekly active usage remaining consistent.

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