DISINFORMATION, PROPAGANDA, AND AI: HOW CONTENT ASSEMBLAGES ARREST MEANING AND ALTER THE REALM OF SIGNIFICATION
This presentation examines how digital content assemblages reshape the signification of political dissent in contemporary media ecosystems. Focusing on a case study surrounding ICE protests in Minneapolis, it analyzes how interconnected artifacts such as AI-generated images, political social media posts, mainstream news coverage, alternative online political media (AOPM), podcasts, and user comment sections work together to construct and stabilize ideological narratives. The project draws on theories of intertextuality and Lacanian signification to argue that content assemblages do not operate as isolated texts but as mutually reinforcing networks that circulate authority and authenticity across platforms. The analysis demonstrates how AI-generated and manipulated content functions as a rhetorical tool to distort perception, while mainstream and alternative media amplify and legitimize partisan framing. These assemblages rely on recognizable genre conventions, particularly within right-wing media ecosystems, to frame political protesters as irrational or dangerous. Comment sections further stabilize these meanings. Ultimately, the presentation argues that such assemblages arrest meaning within a fluid field of signification or meaning, equating dissent with instability or illegitimacy. This process serves broader political and economic interests by undermining civil disobedience and criticism of state power. By mapping these dynamics, the project highlights the growing role of AI and digital media infrastructures in shaping public discourse and political reality.
THE JOE ROGAN EXPERIENCE: IDEOLOGICAL SEMIOTICS
The Joe Rogan Experience (JRE) is one of, if not the most, influential podcasts of all time. It has over two thousand episodes in its collection with hundreds of millions of views. It has come under fire in recent years for promoting disinformation and controversial topics (On the Media). A list of the controversial topics include: COVID-19 misinformation, anti-vaccination sentiment, racist language (Colbjornsen). Despite this controversy it remains wildly popular, consistently finishing at or near the top of the podcast charts. It is important to understand how this podcast constructs meaning and knowledge then distributes this to its audience. How does the JRE disseminate disinformation so effectively? This project will use several different composition and rhetorical theories to map out the way that the Joe Rogan Experience is able to engage the audience and facilitate the spread of right-wing cultural touchstones. I will incorporate the work of semiotic modalities put forward by Bezemer and Kress and Cynthia Selfe to analyze the impact of sound, video, and environment on the perception of the audience. These semiotic modalities play a key role in the way that the audience receives and engages with disinformation. I will also examine Bawarshi’s theory of genre and Gee’s rules for learning and his theory of semiotic domains to examine how the host Joe Rogan interacts with the audience and facilitates audience interaction.
THE FATE OF THE SIMULACRUM IN THE BLADE RUNNER UNIVERSE
This paper and presentation examines the Blade Runner universe through Jean Baudrillard’s concepts of simulacra and the hyperreal, arguing that replicants embody the collapse of distinctions between the real and the imaginary. Replicants, bioengineered beings with implanted memories, raise the central question: what makes a human human, or, conversely, a replicant replicant? By situating replicants within a world already constructed as simulacrum–Los Angeles as a neon cave of shadows, Las Vegas as the “desert of the real,” and food as a hollow projection of sustenance the films illustrate a universe where reality is inaccessible and only simulations remain.
The paper explores how replicant rebellion, symbolic acts of resistance, and memory function not as paths to emancipation but as reinforcements of the hyperreal order. In this world, even female representation is reduced to simulation: Luv as a violent construct, Joi as a holographic commodity, and Mariette as a manipulated puppet. By contrast, Lt. Joshi appears human, yet her role sustains the same capitalistic system as Wallace, demonstrating that antagonism itself is simulated.
Ultimately, both humans and replicants serve the hyperreal, sustaining capitalism’s self-replicating loop. Every act of love, revolution, or sacrifice only reproduces the conditions of the system. The fate of the simulacrum in Blade Runner is not transcendence or liberation, but eternal subjection to simulation, in this world where reality has been destroyed and replaced by models without origin. The films thus expose the paradox of being “more human than human”: the replicant’s existence defines humanity, but only within a universe where neither has access to the real.
LITERACY AS ACTIVISM IN TECHNICAL WRITING
This paper started with a literature review of four of the top academic journals in the field: Technical Communication Quarterly, Communication Design Quarterly, Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, Journal of Business and Technical Communication. My review comprised the last three years of publications, totaling 254 articles in all. I analyzed the abstracts of these articles and coded them based on the theoretical thread to which the article was contributing. I identified over 30 different theoretical threads, but the vast majority of articles were dedicated to some aspect of social justice. Of the different threads that could be classified as social justice, I found the thread that positioned digital and technical literacy as a form of activism to be the most compelling. This thread showcases the value that technical writing has and shows how educators can take an active role in setting their students up not just for success, but for technical resistance and activism in a world that is increasingly digital. The paper argues that technical communication has evolved beyond a field centered solely on workplace documentation and client service into one that increasingly engages questions of social justice, accessibility, ethics, and public advocacy. By examining topics such as grassroots digital activism, algorithmic oppression, tactical technological literacy, and accessibility-centered pedagogy, this study demonstrates how technical communication scholars have expanded the field’s role in shaping civic participation and digital resistance. Ultimately, the paper contends that digital literacy functions not only as a professional skillset but also as a critical tool for empowering communities, challenging systems of oppression, and promoting more equitable access to information and technology in an increasingly digital world.
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