January 27 — Information needs and the shiny new thing
Week 2 · Tuesday
Topics covered
Information needs
How people seek, evaluate, and use information — and why that matters for strategic communications.
Enshittification and platform decay
Cory Doctorow’s framework for how platforms degrade over time: first they’re good to users, then they abuse users to benefit business customers, then they abuse everyone to extract value for shareholders.
The “shiny new thing”
Why chasing the latest platform or tool is a trap. Focus on fundamentals — writing, design, strategy — that transfer across platforms.