Information Warrior$: New Media, New Politics, New Business Models

The meteoric expansion of internet and mobile technologies has upended traditional methods of political communication and influence, creating a market demand for expertise in how to disrupt, interrupt, or change the course of political meaning making online.  As a consequence, a new group of businesses has arisen that offers non-traditional political advocacy services, which range from building fake twitter followers, to creating new social networks, to training and mobilizing new media activists. These organizations are typically, but not exclusively, guns for hire--commonly employed or funded by politicians, states, activists, development organizations, and businesses. Their ideological battlefield is the internet and their tools are digital. They do not fit easily into categories. They cannot be narrowly described as journalists, PR professionals, campaign consultants, social activists, or technologists; rather they occupy the grey areas in between. To date, these information warrior$ have largely escaped academic and media scrutiny; but, for the most part, they like it that way.  They are most effective when the float beneath the radar. This talk will outline how this expanding industry challenges existing conceptions of the political economy of media and the role of the media industries in political communication.

Amelia Arsenault is an Assistant Professor of Communication at Georgia State University.  She is a fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study and also a visiting scholar at the Center for Media, Data, and Society. While in Budapest, she is working on a book project that explores the nascent industry of digital “information warriors,” who provide contract services to political actors seeking to influence the online media agenda. Her scholarly work has appeared in the International Journal of Communication, International Sociology, The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, and Information, Communication, and Society. Her co-edited book “The Connective Mindshift” (with Rhonda Zaharna and Ali Fischer) on the subject of networked public diplomacy was released in May 2013. She holds a B.A. in Film and History from Dartmouth College and an MSc in Global Media and Communication from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and a PhD from the University of Southern California, Annenberg School.  Prior to her academic career, she spent several years as the film coordinator for the Zimbabwe International Film Festival Trust, a non-profit visual literacy organization in Harare, Zimbabwe.