Assistant Professor of Rhetoric and Communications, University of Winnipeg
Dr. Matthew Flisfeder's current research looks at the relationship between social media and neoliberal ideology — especially rhetoric about entrepreneurialism and discourses of the "self," publicity, privacy, and democracy. Dr. Flisfeder also researches the role of social media algorithms in the production and circulation of cultural and political rhetoric and ideology online. As well, Dr. Flisfeder writes about the representation of digital culture and new media in popular film and television.
Flisfeder's most recent book, Postmodern Theory and Blade Runner (Bloomsbury 2017), introduces readers to key concepts in postmodern theory and shows how it can be used for a critical analysis of Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner.
Flisfeder's work generally deals with media and cultural studies and his research and teaching interests lie in communication and cultural theory, critical media studies, and social and political theory.
His interdisciplinary research addresses questions about the intersection of media, ideology, and subjectivity, and examines the role of media and popular culture in reproducing ideological hegemony and in producing subjects compliant in the dominance of capitalism and neoliberalism. Flisfeder's research contributes to debates on media and society; ideologies of postmodern and consumer culture; subjectivity and identity; and emancipatory politics.
His first book, The Symbolic, The Sublime, and Slavoj Žižek’s Theory of Film (Palgrave Macmillan 2012) examines the influence of Slavoj Žižek and his relevance for film studies. He is also the co-editor of Žižek and Media Studies: A Reader (Palgrave Macmillan 2014).

Who's Zooming who? How the coronavirus crisis is finally putting the 'social' into social media
Apr 21, 2020 12:41 pm UTC| Technology
The platforming of our lives on social media apps like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter is usually met with criticism. Interactive technologies, like video games and social media, were told, make us anti-social. Now, as a...