Rena Bivens is Associate Professor of Communication. Trained as a sociologist at The University of Western Ontario, Rena moved to Scotland to pursue her PhD with the Glasgow Media Group at the University of Glasgow in the Department of Sociology. Before returning to Canada she spent two years as a Lecturer in Digital Media and Mass Communication at The University of Nottingham\u2019s campus in Ningbo, China \u2013 the first foreign university (UK) in China with an independent campus. After six years abroad, Rena moved to Ottawa and accepted a SSHRC Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Pauline Jewett Institute of Women\u2019s and Gender Studies at Carleton University. She was also affiliated with the Simone de Beauvoir Institute at Concordia University as a Research Associate. Rena then went on to become a Banting Fellow in the School of Journalism and Communication at Carleton. The Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships program is funded by Canada\u2019s three major funding agencies (SSHRC, NSERC, and CIHR) and is part of an elite suite of federal programs.<\/p>\n
Rena\u2019s research interrogates normative design practices that become embedded within media technologies, including social media software, mobile phone apps, and technologies associated with television news production. Examining the emergence of gender, race, and violence is central to her work. She investigates design and use alongside technical components such as code, software processes, applications, databases, and servers. Science and technology studies, software studies, feminist and queer theory, speculative design, science fiction, new materialism, and philosophy of science inform this work.<\/p>\n
Current projects include: programming practices related to gender; social media moderation practices related to misogyny, transphobia and racism; mobile phone apps designed to prevent sexual violence; and the role of social media in the work of ending gender-based violence by non-profit organizations.<\/p>\n
Rena is the author of\u00a0Digital Currents: How Technology and the Public are Shaping TV News<\/em><\/a>\u00a0(University of Toronto Press, 2014).\u00a0Digital Currents<\/em>\u00a0brings television news to the forefront of heated debates over the future of journalism. A careful dissection of the production process unravels the relationships between digital media, the public, journalists, and news organizations. Rena\u2019s work has also appeared in peer-reviewed journals such as the\u00a0International Journal of Communication<\/em>,\u00a0Feminist Media Studies<\/em>, and\u00a0Journalism Practice<\/em>.<\/p>\n See Rena\u2019s personal website for more information:\u00a0renabivens.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n Bivens, R. (2014)\u00a0Digital Currents: How Technology and the Public Are Shaping TV News<\/em><\/a>, Toronto: University of Toronto Press. (ISBN: 9781442615861)<\/p>\n Bivens, R. and Khan, U. (2019)\u00a0Torn: A Social Media Drama over the Aziz Ansari Scandal<\/a>. Ada: A Journal of Gender, New Media, and Technology, No. 15. doi:\u00a010.5399\/uo\/ada.2019.15.4<\/p>\n Bivens, R. and Hoque, A. S. (2018)\u00a0Programming Sex, Gender, and Sexuality: Infrastructural Failures in \u2018Feminist\u2019 Dating App Bumble<\/a>. Canadian Journal of Communication, 43(3): 441-459.<\/p>\n Bivens, R. (2018)\u00a0Exploiting a Dystopic Future to Unsettle our Present-Day Thinking about Sexual Violence Prevention<\/a>. Ada: A Journal of Gender, New Media, and Technology, No. 13. doi:\u00a010.5399\/uo\/ada.2018.13.5<\/p>\n Bivens, R. (2018)\u00a0Coding Sexual Violence, or Realizing your \u2018Survivor\u2019 Identity is Part of the Problem<\/a>. No More Potlucks, 49.<\/p>\n Bivens, R. and Hasinoff, A. A. (2017) \u201cRape: is there an app for that? An empirical analysis of the features of anti-rape apps<\/a>\u201d\u00a0Information, Communication & Society.\u00a0<\/em>Advance online publication. doi: 10.1080\/1369118X.2017.1309444<\/p>\n Bivens, R. and Haimson, O. L. (2016) \u201cBaking gender into social media design: How platforms shape categories for users and advertisers<\/a>\u201d\u00a0Social Media + Society<\/em>. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1177\/2056305116672486<\/p>\n Bivens, R. (2015) \u201cThe gender binary will not be deprogrammed: Ten years of coding gender on Facebook<\/a>\u201d\u00a0New Media & Society<\/em>. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1177\/1461444815621527<\/p>\n Bivens, R. (2015) \u201cUnder the Hood: The Software in your Feminist Approach<\/a>\u201d\u00a0Feminist Media Studies<\/em>. doi: 10.1080\/14680777.2015.1053717<\/p>\n Bivens, R. (2015) \u201cAffording Immediacy in Television News Production: Comparing Adoption Trajectories of Social Media and Satellite Technologies<\/a>\u201d\u00a0International Journal of Communication\u00a0<\/em>9: 191-209.<\/p>\n Bivens, R. (2008) \u201cThe Internet, Mobile Phones and Blogging: How New Media is Transforming Traditional Journalism<\/a>\u201d\u00a0Journalism Practice<\/em>\u00a02(1): 113-129.\u00a0doi: 10.1080\/17512780701768568<\/p>\n *reprinted in: Benyahia, S. C., Gardner A., Rayner, P. and Wall, P. (2014)\u00a0Media Studies: The Essential Resource<\/em>, 2nd edition, New York: Routledge.<\/p>\n Bivens, R. (2019) Programming the Rules of Engagement: Social Media Design and the Nonprofit System, in M. X. Delli Carpini (ed.)\u00a0Digital Media and Democratic Futures<\/a>, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.<\/p>\n Bivens, R. and Fairbairn, J. (2015) \u201cQuit Facebook, Don\u2019t Sext and Other Futile Attempts to Protect Youth\u201d in S. Tarrant (ed.)\u00a0Gender, Sex, and Politics: In the Streets and Between the Sheets in the 21st Century<\/em><\/a>, New York: Routledge.<\/p>\n Bivens, R. and Li, C. (2009) \u201cWeb-Oriented Public Participation in Contemporary China\u201d in G. Monaghan and S. Tunney (eds.)\u00a0Web Journalism: A New Form of Citizenship?<\/em><\/a>, Brighton: Sussex Academic Press.<\/p>\n Handel, M. J., Bivens, R., Brubaker, J. R., Haimson, O. L., Lingel, J., & Yarosh, S. (2015) \u201cFacebooking in \u2018Face\u2019: Complex Identities Meet Simple Databases<\/a>\u201d, in\u00a0Proceedings of the 18th ACM Conference Companion on Computer Supported Cooperative Work & Social Computing<\/em>\u00a0(pp. 122\u2013125). New York, NY, USA: ACM.\u00a0doi:10.1145\/2685553.2699337<\/p>\n Bivens, R. (2014) \u201cMorozov Principle\u201d in K. Harvey (ed.)\u00a0Encyclopedia of Social Media and Politics<\/em><\/a>, Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.<\/p>\n Bivens, R. (2014) \u201cShirky Principle\u201d in K. Harvey (ed.)\u00a0Encyclopedia of Social Media and Politics<\/em><\/a>, Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Obar, J. A., Taylor, G., Antoine, D., Bivens, R., Caidi, N., Johnson, A., Middleton, C., and Skinner, D. (2014) \u201cMapping Digital Media: Canada<\/a>\u201d, New York: Open Society Foundations.<\/p>\n Fairbairn, J., Bivens, R., and Dawson, M. (2013) \u201cSexual Violence and Social Media: Building a Framework for Prevention<\/a>\u201d, Ottawa: Crime Prevention Ottawa\/Ottawa Coalition to End Violence Against Women.<\/p>\n Bivens, R. (2016) \u201cProgramming Violence: Under a Progressive Surface, Facebook\u2019s Software Misgenders Users<\/a>\u201d, Cyborgology, 27 January.<\/p>\n *cross-posted on\u00a0Culture Digitally<\/em><\/a>, 27 January 2016.<\/p>\nPublications<\/h3>\n
Books<\/h3>\n
Journal Articles<\/h3>\n
Book Chapters<\/h3>\n
Refereed Conference Proceedings<\/h3>\n
Encyclopedia Articles<\/h3>\n
Reports<\/h3>\n
Blog Posts<\/h3>\n