The Communication and Media Studies program presents
The 15th Annual Attallah Lecture
Meme War 2024: Networked Incitement in the Static Age
Presented by Joan Donovan, Assistant Professor at Boston University
Thursday, October 3, 2024 Reception 6:00 pm Lecture 7:00 pm
Richcraft Hall 2228 or virtually via YouTube livestream
RSVP Below
Named in honour of Paul Attallah (Mass Communication Program Head & SJC Associate Director, 1991-2005), the annual Attallah Lecture invites some of the brightest minds in communication and media studies to share their research and perspectives with the Carleton University community.
About the Lecture
In this talk, Joan Donovan will offer a contemporary analysis of the political communication strategies that leverage the ambiguity of memes to carry out media manipulation and disinformation campaigns. In her co-authored book, Meme Wars, Donovan argues that political communication is at a crossroads as more and more people find their news, entertainment, and politics packaged and delivered through black-boxed algorithms. During election season, platforms become a battleground, where competing factions drive public opinion on wedge issues to villainize opponents and valorize their party. Memes become a powerful psychological weapon in the netwar, where it becomes difficult to differentiate between citizens and combatants.
About the Lecturer
Joan Donovan, PhD, is an assistant professor of journalism and emerging media studies at Boston University. Dr. Donovan leads the field in examining internet and technology studies, online extremism, media manipulation, and disinformation campaigns. She is the founder of The Critical Internet Studies Institute, a nonprofit that advocates for a public interest internet.
She co-invented the beaver emoji.
With Emily Dreyfuss and Brian Friedberg, Dr. Donovan coauthored Meme Wars: The Untold Story of the Online Battles Upending Democracy in America. Dr. Donovan’s research explores how media manipulation is a means to control public conversation, derail democracy, and disrupt society. She was previously the Research Director of the Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media Politics and Public Policy.
Dr. Donovan holds a Ph.D. in Sociology and Science Studies from the University of California San Diego. She has published widely in academic peer-reviewed journals as well as in mainstream outlets including NPR, The New York Times, and The Atlantic.
To learn more about Dr. Donovan and her research, visit her website: joandonovan.org.