Growing up in the 1980s and 1990s as a child of immigrants, Professor Aymar Jean (AJ) Christian learned about American culture by watching television. He was a preteen when cable became a dominant force in the industry, and he saw how the transformation of broadcast television reshaped entertainment.
During this evolution, television also became more diverse. Christian saw himself in the stories and characters and could relate to a lot of what he watched. As he reached adulthood, however, the reverse seemed to be happening: Television was moving backward in terms of diversity and representation.
“I found myself watching a lot of anti-hero cable dramas that were mostly about middle-aged white men,” he explains. “They were good shows, and I enjoyed many of them. But, at a certain point, I had to ask myself: ‘Why doesn’t TV look like it did when I was a kid?’ I realized that progress wasn’t linear like I thought.”
This revelation piqued Christian’s interest in media and its ability to help people understand not only themselves but also those who are different from them.
The Clash of Cable TV and the Internet
As the internet took hold in the early 2000s, Christian watched media transform even more. The technology provided a platform for people of every background to share their stories worldwide without spending lots of money.
“I was interested in that clash between watching very expensive cable dramas and content being produced online very inexpensively, and the new possibilities this enabled,” he explains.
As the cable and internet industries mature, one is emerging as a frontrunner, while the other fades into the background. As this revolution takes place, Christian wants to capture the best of both words to create a culture where everyone can be represented in entertainment.
To help make this happen, he has dedicated nearly 15 years to researching the online video economy and the ways in which independent producers and creators generate value for themselves and their communities through online platforms.
As a way to learn with these filmmakers instead of from them, Christian cofounded Open Television (OTV) in 2015, a research project and nonprofit platform for intersectional television. A product of the Media and Data Equity (MADE) Lab, where Christian serves as director, OTV supports artists who are historically disempowered due to race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, nationality, disability, religion, and/or citizenship status.
“I saw a gap in distribution online,” he explains. “So many storytellers were telling culturally complex stories, but algorithms didn’t always distribute those stories to audiences. OTV serves as a curated, independent distributor that sits on top of social media platforms to help artists produce and tell the culturally complex stories that engage the many identities we hold.”

Professor Aymar Jean Christian at Northwestern’s Media and Data Equity (MADE) Lab (Aymar Jean Christian; LinkedIn)
Cultivating Multiplicity and Diversity in Storytelling
Over the past decade, as he helps cultivate a thriving next generation of storytellers, Christian says he has learned a lot. For example, he discovered that many of the core principles of film and television distribution persist in the digital age and can be adapted to digital’s needs.
“You can take the exclusive licensing model that every distributor and streamer in Hollywood uses and make it nonexclusive for the Internet,” he explains. “This gives independent creators more freedom.”
As artificial intelligence (AI) and large language models move into the mainstream, Christian is expanding his research to recognize the role of reparative AI (AI that can address and resolve bias). By studying the relationship between training data and AI outputs, he hopes to determine how models can generate datasets that are sincere, culturally specific, and healing—a critical issue in today’s media environment.
Case in point: Generative AI and the Politics of Visibility, a study led by researcher Tarlatan Gillespie, asked major tech companies’ large language models to tell stories. A simple analysis of these stories revealed that, to varying degrees, many relied on normative scripts around race, gender, and sexuality.
“That’s not what we need right now,” emphasizes Christian. “We need multiplicity and diversity. As a culture, we need to understand the very layered, complex, nuanced, and different experiences that people have around the world. But that doesn’t seem to be what AI is giving us. So much of AI is either very obviously plastic or insincere, which can stoke cultural division.”
Studying the Business of Streaming
To share these insights with MS in Leadership for Creative Enterprises (MSLCE) students, Christian leads Business of Streaming, a course that covers traditional and new practices in the development of television and social video programs.
While he’s been teaching a version of this course for a decade under a different title (Digital Television), the course’s new name and refreshed curriculum better align with the way emerging technologies are transforming the business of legacy media.
“I want students to understand how the entertainment industry has evolved into what it is today,” he explains. “While there are lots of new things happening, there’s also a lot that isn’t new.”
Christian walks students through the way stories are developed, produced, distributed, and monetized through film, television, and video and explains how regulatory and technological disruptions like cable, the internet, and now AI are changing the industry.
To delve into the cultural consequences of AI, students will also be studying GPT agents, bots, and other experimental tools.
“This is a period of intense transformation, and it’s an excellent time to understand what happens when old technologies and systems slowly crumble, and new ones emerge,” says Christian.
While content creation is just one component of the extensive portfolios built by tech companies like Apple and Amazon, many media companies are realizing they aren’t able to keep up in terms of production. At the same time, AI is quickly lowering production costs, welcoming more people into the industry while requiring fewer resources.
“We’ll be looking at a very different media industry in the next 10 years,” says Christian. “Northwestern is helping professionals prepare to navigate this changing environment.”
3 Themes MSLCE Students Explore in Business of Streaming
Professor Aymar Jean (AJ) Christian’s Business of Streaming course covers traditional and new practices in the development of television and social video programs.
In his class, students will learn about:
- The ways in which TV programming options and ownership structures have transformed as a result of cable and internet distribution.
- Changes in how corporate broadcast and cable networks select and finance scripted and unscripted series.
- How social media is reshaping TV production and marketing in the 21st century.
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