Doctoral Candidate, Communication Studies and Media Arts, McMaster University
Jess Rauchberg is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Communication Studies and Media Arts at McMaster University. Jess pursues a research program investigating disability and social media user experiences. Her dissertation project, "Crip data studies," positions ableism as an ideology encoded into platform infrastructure and governing technology used alongside other networks of oppression, such as racism, colonialism, and classism. The project additionally amplifies the various reconfigurations disabled creators and social media users rely on for economic support, community building, and general platform use.
Jess's published and forthcoming writing appears in the Journal of International and Intercultural Communication, Studies in Social Justice, Feminist Media Studies, The SAGE Handbook of Human-Machine Communication (SAGE, 2023), and LGBTQ Digital Cultures: A Global Perspective (Routledge, 2022). She is a project manager for McMaster's Pulse Lab and a 2022-23 graduate affiliate with the Center for Information, Technology, and Public Life (CITAP) at UNC Chapel Hill.
In the $250B influencer industry, being a hater can be the only way to rein in bad behavior
May 04, 2025 07:20 am UTC| Insights & Views Entertainment Business
Since 2020, content creator Remi Bader had accumulated millions of TikTok followers by offering her opinions on the fits of popular clothing brands as a plus-size woman. In 2023, however, Bader appeared noticeably thinner....