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Where political communication theory meets on the ground strategy. Host, Professor Elizabeth Dubois, picks a political communication theory, explains it to a practitioner, and then they have a chat about whether or not it makes sense at all out in the world of politics and communications. She chats with political staffers, journalists, comms experts, lobbyists, activists and other political actors. Elizabeth quizzes them on pol comm theory and they tell her how ridiculous (or super helpful) that theory actually is.
70 Episodes
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In this episode, Elizabeth talks to Mike Pal, a law professor at the University of Ottawa, about election laws in Canada. Elizabeth and Mike discuss the laws and institutions that govern elections in Canada, including the Canada Elections Act and Elections Canada. They discuss threats to election integrity and security posed by new technologies in an age of democratic decline. Elizabeth and Mike also delve into the threat of foreign interference, voter privacy in big data elections, an...
In this episode, Elizabeth talks to Nick Taylor-Vaisey, a journalist for Politico who works on the Ottawa Playbook, a free daily morning newsletter decoding Canadian politics. Nick and Elizabeth discuss the role of newsletters in curating information in a high-choice media environment and the way journalism has adapted to becoming digital. They discuss newsletters as a form of political information sharing and how this type of media can facilitate a direct relationship between author and read...
In this episode, Elizabeth is joined by Conner Coles, a former lobbyist with experience working in and around politics, including during the political party candidate nomination process. Conner walks us through the issue of foreign interference in nomination races , how a lack of federal oversight in these contests exacerbates the problem, and the impact this can have on our democratic systems. Conner and Elizabeth dive into examples of foreign interference through news and government reports...
In this episode, Elizabeth interviews Brazilian journalist and columnist Patrícia Campos Mello, who first exposed the illegal use of WhatsApp mass messaging in Brazil's 2018 presidential elections. Together, they examine how politically motivated groups orchestrate fake grassroots movements—known as astroturfing—to manipulate public opinion and influence media coverage. Patrícia shares Brazilian examples to highlight the evolution of these tactics, from mass messaging operations to highly coo...
In this episode, Elizabeth Dubois chats with Melanie Paradis, President of Texture Communications, to dissect the theory of planned behaviour and its application in political communication. With Melanie’s extensive background in political strategy and public relations, and her roles on high-profile political campaigns, this discussion explores how psychological principles underpin effective political messaging and voter engagement strategies. Additional Resources: Elizabeth relies on ...
Wonks and War Rooms is kicking off season 7 with all things elections! With 73 elections worldwide, 2024 is being called a “global elections supercycle”. Elizabeth introduces the headlining topics listeners can get excited to learn about this season, including the theory of planned behaviour, astroturfing, foreign interference at the nomination level, and election laws. Elizabeth also talks about the land acknowledgement you hear at the end of each WWR episode, she explains how Wonks an...
This week Elizabeth talks with Seher Shafiq, a program manager at the Mozilla Foundation and expert in civic engagement, particularly in the context of elections and engaging marginalized people in the vote. They discuss how AI is impacting Canadian elections, civic engagement, and democracy. They look at helpful and not so helpful uses of AI tools in elections and chat about ways these tools could be used to increase voter engagement. Seher concludes the episode with suggestions for how we c...
In this episode Elizabeth discusses the idea of counter-speech as content moderation with far right extremist researcher, Kesa White. Kesa describes her work on “dog-whistling,” talks about how counter speech can be helpful but doesn’t solve the problem of hate speech online, and explains some of the challenges tech companies face with content moderation. Drawing on her own experience with hate-speech she emphasizes how important it is for us to keep being “in the know” about social media and...
This week Elizabeth talks with Michael Redhead Champagne, a community organizer in Winnipeg working to dismantle harmful systems and build better ones through Indigenous practices and knowledge. They discuss collective and connective action logics, and the importance of creating networks of people to promote and sustain change. Michael talks about building a spider web or network to help advance change, highlighting how essential fostering social connections is for pushing for political chang...
In this episode Elizabeth chats with TikTok creator and researcher T.X. Watson about parasocial relationships and how this term created in the 1950s applies, or not, to digital content creators. T.X. talks about relationships between influencers and their followers and how both research and popular culture still don't have words to properly describe this new form of connection. They discuss important topics that show up throughout this season of Wonks and War Rooms, such as authenticity, ethi...
In this episode Elizabeth delves into the fascinating world of data and personalization with Hamish Marshall, former National Campaign Manager for the Conservative Party of Canada and seasoned expert at the crossroads of data and politics. They explore the evolution from the Two-Step Flow to the One-Step Flow of Communication, examining how data personalization and the changing media landscape have shifted the way information is disseminated in political campaigns. Hamish shares real-world in...
In this episode, Elizabeth chats with digital communication strategist and experienced political campaigner, Nate Lubin about social media content creators in politics. Nate draws on his experience with the Better Internet Initiative which helps influencers make educational content related to progressive issues as well as his past experience as Director of the Office of Digital Strategy at the White House and Director of Digital Marketing at Obama for America. They talk about what constitutes...
In this episode Elizabeth chats with journalist Rachel Gilmore about what counts as journalistic content and how to navigate the intersection of journalism and the social media influencer industry. Rachel is a freelance journalist who posts regularly on TikTok (@rachel_gilmore), Instagram (@r.gilmore), and X (@atRachelGilmore) having previously worked in organizations such as CTV and Global News. Additional Resources: In this episode, Elizabeth and Rachel discuss the blurred boundaries betwee...
This week Elizabeth chats with Dave Sommer, Vice President of Strategic Communication at Enterprise Canada, former Head of Politics and Government at Instagram in Washington, D.C., and former Deputy Director of Communications, Digital, for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Ottawa. They chat about the use of social media in political campaigning, where personal influence fits in, and how it has evolved over time. Additional Resources: Elizabeth and Dave discuss how social media can be a tool to...
This week Elizabeth chats with tech culture reporter and Washington Post columnist, Taylor Lorenz about influencers and the influencer industry. Taylor takes us from Ce-web-reties to influencers to content creators, telling us a bit about the history of folks who monetize their online presence. The two chat about the influencer industry beyond social media influencer marketing, the unique dynamics of political campaigning, smaller scale content creators as opinion leaders, and the ways in whi...
Prepare for an intriguing journey in Season 6 of Wonks & War Rooms! Join Elizabeth Dubois as she unravels the dynamics of personal influence in politics, especially as it evolves with new technologies. In this episode Elizabeth talks about her experience working in politics and how it has pushed her to question what counts as personal influence and what roles technology plays in political communication. She also gives a peak at what to expect this season. New episodes drop Wednesda...
Get ready for Season 6 of Wonks & War Rooms! This season, we're looking at personal influence in politics and how it evolves as new technologies are integrated into campaign strategies. Host Elizabeth Dubois will talk to journalists, campaigners, content creators, activists and more to discuss everything from opinion leaders to social media influencers to personalization and augmented analytics to generative AI and how all of those things impact the way personal influence plays out in p...
In this final episode, our host Elizabeth reflects on the six episodes of Season 5, which dug into tech, politics, and policy with guests from the Berkman Klein Centre at Harvard and Center for Information Technology and Public Life (CITAP) at UNC-Chapel Hill. She recaps highlights of each episode, looks at what they had in common, and where we need to dig a little deeper. Additional resources: Here are direct links to this season’s episodes, including show notes and annotated transcripts: Ep...
Matt Perault is the director of the Center on Technology Policy at UNC Chapel Hill, and previously worked at Facebook, as the head of the global policy development team. This episode he and Elizabeth get into the weeds on antitrust competition laws, monopolies and big tech. They talk about how monopolies can be both good and bad, the goals of antitrust laws, and the complication of these laws applying across different regions of the world. They also discuss some of the antitrust lawsuits in b...
In this special episode Elizabeth is joined by our panel of experts — Samantha Bradshaw, Wendy Chun, Suzie Dunn, Fenwick McKelvey and Wendy H. Wong — for a roundtable discussion on how artificial intelligence is being deployed in Canadian political contexts. The topics range from mis- and disinformation, facial recognition, synthetic media, deep fakes and voice cloning to technical terms like GANs and large language models. We discuss the ways identities can be manipulated through AI, h...
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