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Lisa Lynch, PhD

  • Associate Professor, Journalism

Contact information

Email:

lisa.lynch@concordia.ca

Website:

Personal website

Biography

Worked from 1987-1992 as a magazine and newspaper journalist in the San Francisco Bay Area and then in Pennsylvania, writing on science and cultural affairs.  Since beginning her academic career, Dr. Lynch has written about the prison system, Guantanamo, and nuclear policy for both academic and popular publications.

Educaton

BA, English, Stanford University
MJ, University of California at Berkeley
PhD, American Literature, Rutgers

Areas of research interest

My research is situated at the intersection between culture, technology, and political change, focusing on topics including new media, information access, global internet governance issues, and human rights. My academic writing has appeared in journals including  American Literature, Radical History Review, and Journalism Practice, and my research has been written about in publications ranging from Kill Screen to Al Jazeera.


Some of my more prominent research has focused on the growth of leaking platforms and their use by journalists. I have published several journal articles and book chapters on Wikileaks, including chapters in the volumes Beyond Wikileaks and Citizen Journalism: Global Perspectives as well as articles in Digital Journalism, Radical History Review, Journalism Practice, the International Journal of Online Communication and other venues.


During fall semester 2014, I was a fellow at Princeton’s Center For Information Technology Policy, researching Net Neutrality and Google's response to Europe's Right To Be Forgotten legislation.

Courses taught

JOUR 428          Multi-Platform Journalism

JOUR 602          Foundations II

JOUR 610          International Journalism

JOUR 630          Mediating Diversity

JOUR 450          Independent Study

JOUR 442          International Journalism

JOUR 215          Contemporary News Media

JOUR 202          Digital Tools for Journalists

Selected publications

Book chapters

“Wikileaks and/as Citizen Journalism,” Citizen Journalism II, Peter Lang, 2014.

“The Leak Heard Round The World: Cablegate and Media Globalization” in Beyond WikiLeaks: Implications for Journalism, Politics and Society, Palgrave 2013: 56-67.

“Journalism” (with Sandra Gabriele), in Intersections of Media and Communication, Edmond Montgomery 2011: 239-266.

“Social Media,” in The New Journalist, Edmond Montgomery 2010: 229-242.

Journal articles

“Oh, Wikileaks, I would so love to RT you,” IJOC 8 (2014). 

“Preserving the Unpreservable: Form, Content, Copyright and the Archiving of Born-Digital Newspapers” (with Paul Fontaine), ISOJ 4.1 (Spring 2014) 4-22.

‘A Huge Culture Change:’ Newsrooms at La Presse and The Montreal Gazette
Reflect on the Shift to Digital-First.” ISOJ 4.1 (Spring 2014) 43-57.

 “Cablegate In The Congo: Wikileaks and Global Media Change,” Radical History Review 117, October 2013: 49-69.
 
“Wikileaks After Megaleaks: The Organization’s Impact on Journalism Practice and Journalism Studies.  Digital Journalism.  August 2013: 314-334.

“’That’s Not Leaking, It’s Pure Editorial’: Wikileaks and Narratives About Journalistic Experitise,” Canadian Journal of Media Studies, Fall 2012: 20-40.

“The Guantanamobile Project.” Interactive web-based documentation of the detention situation in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Vectors: Journal of Culture and Technology In A Dynamic Vernacular, September 2005.

“Strange Germs and Hopeful Monsters: Alexander Laing's 1930s American Biotechnology Tales.” New Literary History, vol. 36 no 22, Spring 2005.

Selected presentations

“’Snake Oil Software Crap:’ Journalists, Information Vulnerability and the Search for a Technological Fix.” Trusting Human Safety to Software: What Could Possibly Go Wrong? Princeton University, November 4, 2014.

Participatory Journalism Roundtable, AEJMC, Montreal, August 2014.
“Archiving Born-Digital News In Canada: Moving from Chaos to Continuity.” World Social Science Forum, Montreal, October 2013.

“Wikileaks beyond the second wave,” International Communication Association, London, June 2013.

“Data Journalism, Surveillance, Sousveillance.”  International Communication Association, London, June 2013.

“Nuclear power hazard in the age of green nuclear energy,” Nuclear Interest Research Group SSHRC Symposium, Toronto, April 2011. 

“Secrecy, Surveillance, Transparency" Visible Evidence, New York, August 2011.

“The Neverending Story: Wikileaks and Media Futures,” Invited Special Session, International Association of Media and Communications Research, Istanbul, July 2011.

“’Please RT@Wikileaks;’ Altering Information flows via Twitter,” International Communications Association, Boston, May 2011.

“’That's not leaking, that's pure editorial’: Wikileaks and boundary narratives about journalistic expertise.”  Extending Expertise: Experts and Amateurs In Communication and Culture, Ottawa, April 2011.

Other witing/professional activities

Social media expert on four-person ombudsman-appointed review panel for objectivity in 2011 election coverage, CBC

Guest on NPR “All Things Considered,” March 29, 2011, to discuss research on cultural expressions of nuclear anxiety. 

Guest on CBC News, Dec 7, 2010 to discuss Wikileaks.

Interviewed by The New York Times and major Canadian, European and Asian newspapers regarding research on Wikileaks.

“The G Word: Guantanamo, the "Gulag" Backlash, and the Language of the Human Rights,” Politics and Culture (special issue edited by Amitava Kumar and Michael Ryan), February 2007.

“The United States’ Nuclear Fix,” OpenDemocracy, Jan 23, 2006.

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