While the underlying purpose of the construction and consumption of food texts remain the same from analog to digital form, the authority of food culture and its complimentary narrative control has shifted as a result of the convergence of food texts and digital media affordances.
Just Say No to “Just Say No”: Tensions in Organizational Approaches to Youth and Online Privacy in the Americas
This thesis examines organizational practices in the field of youth online privacy in the Americas. Mariel García-Montes describes harms created by protective, universalist, individualistic approaches that pose youth as conditional citizens, and makes a case for approaches based instead on youth agency, intersectional views of privacy, collective responsibility, and the recognition of youth as subjects of rights today.
The Print that Binds: Local Journalism, Civic Life and the Public Sphere
Local journalism is critical as a tool for informing citizens so they can be civically engaged and hold the powerful accountable, as well as keeping communities together.
When to Start Freaking Out: Audience Engagement on Social Media During Disease Outbreaks
Sensationalism, gatekeeping, and media figurations mean audience engagement is not merely a journalistic, revenue‐oriented concern — it is a public health concern too.
Intimate Worlds: Reading for Intimate Affects in Contemporary Video Games
Video games have a unique capacity to generate intimate affects, and my games of choice push us to rethink our assumptions about what constitutes intimacy more broadly.
When All You Have is a Banhammer: The Social and Communicative Work of Volunteer Moderators
Drawing upon interviews, participant observation, and my own experiences as a volunteer community moderator on Reddit, I propose that a significant portion of work performed by volunteer moderators is social and communicative in nature.
Seizing the Memes of Production: Political Memes in Puerto Rico and the Puerto Rican Diaspora
“This thesis seeks to understand how different groups of people in Puerto Rico and the diaspora deploy internet memes for political critique. In this work, I analyze three case studies focused on how Puerto Rican groups and individuals use internet memes to express political discontent, make calls to action, engage in catharsis, and seek political change.”
