Uploaded October 2022 | Updated September 2026, 3 days ago
Joan Donovan, Research Director, Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School
Meme Wars is the first major account of how “Stop the Steal” went from online to real life, from the wires to the weeds. Leading media expert Joan Donovan, Ph.D., veteran tech journalist Emily Dreyfuss, and cultural ethnographer Brian Friedberg pull back the curtain on the digital war rooms in which a vast collection of antiesablishmentarians bond over hatred of liberal government and media. Together as a motley reactionary army, they use memes and social media to seek out new recruits, spread ideologies, and remake America according to their desires.
For more information about Joan Donovan, visit https://www.hks.harvard.edu/faculty/joan-donovan.
Joan Donovan, Research Director, Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School
Meme Wars is the first major account of how “Stop the Steal” went from online to real life, from the wires to the weeds. Leading media expert Joan Donovan, Ph.D., veteran tech journalist Emily Dreyfuss, and cultural ethnographer Brian Friedberg pull back the curtain on the digital war rooms in which a vast collection of antiesablishmentarians bond over hatred of liberal government and media. Together as a motley reactionary army, they use memes and social media to seek out new recruits, spread ideologies, and remake America according to their desires.
For more information about Joan Donovan, visit https://www.hks.harvard.edu/faculty/joan-donovan.
