There’s also an epistemic dimension. Live-streaming and webinar platforms promise unedited immediacy, yet the promise often masks production choices that shape what seems spontaneous. The mic test is literal sound-checking but metaphorically stands for all small calibrations—camera angles, backgrounds, scripted “impromptu” remarks—that produce polished spontaneity. When marketed as “exclusive,” that production is rebranded as authenticity rather than disclosed craft. The result is a civic cost: audiences learn to trust the aura of immediacy rather than demanding transparency about how that aura is manufactured.