The Digital Ecosystem & Canada’s Election

From disinformation to memes to political advertising, digital media are being used to generate and share information in new ways. In this talk we review the various kinds of actors and tools found in a digital ecosystem and use the case of the October 21st Federal Election in Canada to explore that ecosystem. We will discuss the use of political bots and automation, political memes, and political advertising in particular.

Dr. Elizabeth Dubois (PhD, University of Oxford) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication and member of the Centre for Law, Technology and Society at the University of Ottawa. She is also a Fellow at the Public Policy Forum of Canada and member of Assembly based at Harvard’s Berkman-Klein Center. Her work examines political uses of digital media including media manipulation, citizen engagement, and artificial intelligence.