Wonks and War Rooms

Elizabeth chats with lawyer Naomi Sayers about Assemblages. From @IndigiBot to bad date reporting to corporate complaint hierarchies, they've got lots of examples of Assemblages. They show how thinking about the system of people, organizations, tools, technology, and the relationships between each can be pretty useful.

Additional resources:

• This academic article by Chadwick: The political information cycle in a hybrid news system: The British prime minister and the “Bullygate” affair
• The Hybrid Media System: Politics and Power, tumblr site
• The Wikipedia article on Assemblages Theory is a start. Follow the references.

Check out www.polcommtech.ca for annotated transcripts of this episode in English and French. 

Elizabeth chats with Buzzfeed disinformation reporter Jane Lytvynenko about the high-choice media environment. In a tweet, Jane tells us the theory is basically information capitalism. They dig into the idea of having lots of choices both about the supply and demand for political information. From audience fragmentation to crisis communication, we question what the theory has to say about the way people access and share political information and news.


Additional resources:
Academic article by Van Aelst and colleagues: Political communication in a high-choice media environment: a challenge for democracy?.

Check out www.polcommtech.ca for annotated transcripts of this episode in English and French. 

Welcome to Wonks and War Rooms, where political communication theory meets on the ground strategy. Each episode Professor Elizabeth Dubois introduces use to a political communication theory and then chats with a with political staffers, journalists, comms experts, lobbyists, activists and other political actors. They talk through examples our in the applied world of politics and communication to illustrate just how ridiculous (or super helpful) that theory actually is.

Elizabeth Dubois (PhD, University of Oxford) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Ottawa. Her work examines political uses of digital media including media manipulation, citizen engagement, and political opinion development.

Check out www.polcommtech.ca for annotated transcripts of this episode in English and French.