Trendwatch: Media & Culture: August 3, 2020

Comic-Con goes online – Roblox launches a virtual event space – Eventbrite registers voters – Algorithm spots similarities in works of art – Why advertising ruined the internet  

Comic-Con Is Online, and So Is the Artist Alley — New York Times

Indie artists who make a significant portion of their income at fan conventions are hoping virtual attendees will be willing to spend.  

Roblox Launches Party Place, A Private Venue for Virtual Birthday Parties and Other Meetups — Techcrunch 

Roblox is launching a new feature called “Party Place” to directly cater to the growing demand among users for a dedicated, private place to host virtual events.     

Eventbrite Is Turning Ticket Sales Into Voter Registration Drives — Fast Company

The next time you sign up for an event, Eventbrite might help make sure you’re registered to vote in November.      

How Digital Ads Subsidize the Worst of the Web — Wired

From COVID-19 conspiracies to election scams, automated advertising software plays a large — and largely unseen — role.        

MIT and Microsoft Algorithm Determines Correlations in Vast Art Collections — Tech Republic

A team of researchers at MIT have created an algorithm to identify analogous artworks. Their work could help spur innovation in datasets, inquiry systems, and more.