Profile

Situated between the humanities and social sciences, Whitney Phillips' research draws from science and technology studies, critical theory, and media history. Her early research on online play, transgression, and other forms of ambivalent public participation gave way to a focus on media ethics, as even the most amusing, playful, or social behavior could have far-reaching -and sometimes devastating- consequences for those who laughed and those who did not, could not, or would not. Her current research and teaching interests foreground three basic questions: What are our hypermediated worlds like (and to what ethical effects for what groups)? How did those worlds get that way? And most important, what we can do to make them better? Always in dialogue with these questions, recent research and teaching foci have included: the ethics of journalistic amplification, conspiracy theories and other world-building stories, political communication, political manipulation, media literacy efforts for K-12 students, strategies for navigating difficult political conversations, the relationship between wellbeing and social media sharing, histories of hybrid religious and secular media, the rhetorical and cultural significance of monster archetypes, and sensationalist media, including true crime.