Publications

AI Regulation and Govermentality

  1. Dandurand, G., McKelvey, F., & Roberge, J. (2023). Freezing out: Legacy media’s shaping of AI as a cold controversy. Big Data & Society, 10(2), 20539517231219242. https://doi.org/10.1177/20539517231219242
  2. McKelvey, F., & Hunt, R. (2023, November 9). Remodelling internet infrastructure: A first look at platform governance in the era of ChatGPT. https://doi.org/10.33767/osf.io/9zqje
  3. McKelvey, F. (2023, August 28). Wait—Is ChatGPT Even Legal? [Walrus Magazine]. https://thewalrus.ca/wait-is-chatgpt-even-legal/
  4. McKelvey, F., & Hunt, R. (2023, May 19). ChatGPT’s Infrastructural Ambitions: AI, Commodification, and the Commons. Centre for Media, Technology and Democracy. https://www.mediatechdemocracy.com/all-work/chatgpts-infrastructural-ambitions-ai-commodification-and-the-commons
  5. Fabian Ferrari & Fenwick McKelvey (2022) Hyperproduction: a social theory of deep generative models, Distinktion: Journal of Social Theory, https://doi.org/10.1080/1600910X.2022.2137546
  6. McKelvey, F. & Roberge, J. (2023). Recursive Power: AI Governmentality and Technofutures. In Lindgren, S. Handbook of Critical Studies of Artificial Intelligence. Edward Elgar Publishers. [pre-print]
  7. McKelvey, F. & Neves, J. (2021). Introduction: optimization and its discontents. Review of Communication. 21(1). pp. 95-112. as part of special issue edited by Fenwick McKelvey and Joshua Neves. [PDF]
  8. McKelvey, F. & Roberge, J. (2021, April 25). Canada is gambling with its leadership on artificial intelligence. Globe and Mail.
  9. McKelvey, F., & Macdonald, M. (2019). Artificial Intelligence Policy Innovations at the Canadian Federal Government. Canadian Journal of Communication, 44(2), 43–50.
  10. McKelvey, F. (2018, May 21). Use the Charter to guide AI governance. Policy Options.
  11. McKelvey, F., & Gupta, A. (2018, February 22). Here’s how Canada can be a global leader in ethical AI. The Conversation.

Algorithmic Media Policy

  1. McKelvey, F. (2018). Internet Daemons: Digital communications possessed. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. [open access]
  2. Blanchett, N., McKelvey, F., & Brin, C. (2022). Algorithms, platforms, and policy: The changing face of Canadian news distribution. In J. Meese & S. Bannerman (Eds.), The Algorithmic Distribution of News. Palgrave Macmillan. http://link.springer.com/book/9783030870850
  3. McKelvey, F. (2019, July 29). Daemons are the programs that run the internet. Here’s why it’s important to understand them. The Conversation.
  4. McKelvey, F. (2019, May 1). To dismantle surveillance capitalism, we must reimagine the machine built in its service. The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives Monitor, 26(1), 17.
  5. Hunt, R. & McKelvey, F. (2019). Algorithmic Regulation in Media and Cultural Policy: A Framework to Evaluate Barriers to Accountability. Journal of Information Policy, 9, 307-335.
  6. McKelvey, F., & Hunt, R. (2019). Discoverability: Toward a Definition of Content Discovery Through Platforms. Social Media + Society, 5(1), 2056305118819188. [open access]
  7. McKelvey, F. (2016). The new attention factory: Discoverability and Canadian cultural policy, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives Monitor, 23(2), 32–34.
  8. McKelvey, F. (2016). No More Magic Algorithms: Cultural Policy in an Era of Discoverability — Data & Society: Points.

Platforms: Politics and Programmability

  1. Gehl, R., & McKelvey, F. (2019). Bugging out: darknets as parasites of large-scale media objects. Media, Culture & Society, 41(2), 219–235. [pre-print]
  2. McKelvey, F., Tworek, H., & Tenove, C. (2019, February 11). How a standards council could help curb harmful online content. Policy Options.
  3. Tenove, C., Tworek, H., & McKelvey, F. (2018, November 12). We can’t rely solely on Silicon Valley to tackle online hatred. Globe and Mail.
  4. McKelvey, F. (2018, January 15). Has Trust in Social Media Disappeared? Policy Options.
  5. Mckelvey, F. (2014). The Virtualities of Political Technology: Some Reflections about the Northstar Campaign System, post for Qualitative Political Communication Research blog.
  6. McKelvey, F. (2011). A Programmable Platform? Drupal, Modularity, and the Future of the Web. Fibreculture, (18).

Digital Political Communication: Analytics, Bots, Campaigns and Memes

  1. McKelvey, F., Langlois, G., & Elmer, G. (2023). From Disinformation to Speculation: The Pitch, the Playbook & the Buy-In. Center for Information, Technology, & Public Life (CITAP), University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. https://citap.pubpub.org/pub/for0o4fs
  2. McKelvey, F., DeJong, S., Kowalchuck, S., & Donovan, E. (2022). Is the Alt-Right Popular in Canada? Image Sharing, Popular Culture, and Social Media. Canadian Journal of Communication, 47(4), 702–729. https://doi.org/10.3138/cjc.2022-0021 [Correct unredacted version with memes included]
  3. McKelvey, F., Coulter, N., Langlois, G., & Elmer, G. (2022). Introduction: Connection issues. Canadian Journal of Communication, 47(1), Article 1. https://doi.org/10.22230/cjc.2022v47n1a4307
  4. Co-Editor with Langlois, G., Elmer, G., & Coulter. (2021) The Alt-Rights in Canada. The Canadian Journal of Communication
  5. McKelvey, F., DeJong, S. & Frenzel, J. (2021). Memes, Scenes and #EXLN2019s: How Partisans Make Memes During Elections. New Media & Society. [open access]
  6. McKelvey, F. & Piebiak, J. (2018). Porting the Political Campaign: The NationBuilder platform and the global flows of political technology, New Media and Society [PDF]
  7. McKelvey, F. (2021, September 13). From sunny ways to pelted with stones: Why do some Canadians hate Justin Trudeau?The Conversation.
  8. Dubois, E., McKelvey, F., & Owen, T. (2019, April 10). What have we learned from Google’s political ad pullout? Policy Options.
  9. McKelvey, F. (2020). Cranks, Clickbait and Cons: On the Acceptable Use of Political Engagement Platform. Internet Policy Review, 8(4). [open access]
  10. Dubois, E., & McKelvey, F. (2019). Political Bots: Disrupting Canada’s Democracy. Canadian Journal of Communication, 44(2), 27–33.
  11. McKelvey, F., & Piebiak, J. (2019). Does the Difference Compute? Data-Driven Campaigning in Canada. In M. Lalancette, V. Raynauld, & E. Crandall (Eds.), What’s trending in Canadian politics?: Understanding transformations in power, media, and the public sphere (pp. 194–215). UBC Press. [PDF]
  12. McKelvey, F. (2018). Hillary 2016. In J. W. Morris & S. Murray (Eds.), Appified: Mundane Software and the Rise of the Apps (pp. 246–256). Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
    [PDF]
  13. McKelvey, F., Côté, M., & Raynauld, V. (2018). Scandals and Screenshots: Social Media Elites in Canadian Politics. In A. Marland, T. Giasson, & A. Lawlor (Eds.), Political Elites in Canada: Power and Influence in Instantaneous Times (pp. 204–222). Vancouver: UBC Press. [PDF]
  14. McKelvey, F. (2018, July 4). Protecting our information in the age of data-driven politics. Policy Options.
  15. Dubois, E., & McKelvey, F. (2018). Canada: Building Bot Typologies. In S. Woolley & P. N. Howard (Eds.), Computational propaganda: political parties, politicians, and political manipulation on social media (pp. 64–85). New York, NY, United States of America: Oxford University Press.
  16. McKelvey, F., & Dubois, E. (2017, November 23). Toward the responsible use of bots in politics. Policy Options.
  17. Dubois, E., & McKelvey, F. (2017, July 2). The risks and rewards of political bots for Canadian democracy. The Toronto Star.
  18. McKelvey, F. & DuBois, E. (2017). Computational Propaganda in Canada: The Use of Political Bots as part of Computational Propaganda Worldwide working papers, The Computational Propaganda Project.
  19. McKelvey, F. (2015). Battling political machines: Coming to a riding near you! Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives Monitor, 22(3), 38–39.
  20. Elmer, G., Langlois, G. & McKelvey, F. (2012). The Permanent Campaign: New Media, New Politics. New York: Peter Lang.
  21. Langlois, G, Elmer, G., McKelvey, F., & Devereaux, Z. (2009). Networked Publics: the Double Articulation of Code and Politics on Facebook. Canadian Journal of Communication 34(3). pp. 415-434.
  22. Elmer, G., Ryan, P. M., Devereaux, Z., Langlois, G., Redden, J., & McKelvey, F. (2007). Election Bloggers: Methods for Determining Political Influence. First Monday, 12(4).

History of Computing

  1. McKelvey, F. (2022) When the New Magic was New: The Claritas Corporation and the Clustering of America. IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, 44,(4), pp. 44-56, 1 https://doi.org/10.1109/MAHC.2022.3214223. [PDF]
  2. Lepage-Richer, Theo. & McKelvey, F. (2022). States of Computing: On Government Organization and Artificial Intelligence in Canada. Big Data & Society. 9(2). https://doi.org/10.1177/20539517221123304.
  3. McKelvey, F. (2021). The Other Cambridge Analytics: Early “Artificial Intelligence” in American Political Science. In J. Roberge & M. Castelle (Eds.), The cultural life of machine learning: An incursion into critical AI studies (pp. 117–142). Palgrave Macmillan.
  4. McKelvey, F. (2021). Book Review: If Then: How the Simulmatics Corporation Invented the Future. The International Journal of Press/Politics, 1940161221989215.
  5. McKelvey, F., & Driscoll, K. (2018). ARPANET and its boundary devices: modems, IMPs, and the inter-structuralism of infrastructures. Internet Histories, 0(0), 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/24701475.2018.1548138

Piracy and Pirate Politics

  1. McKelvey, F. (2015). We Like Copies, Just Don’t Let the Others Fool You: The Paradox of The Pirate Bay. Television and New Media, 16(8), 734-750.  [copy of pre-publication version].
  2. Beyer, J., & McKelvey, F. (2015). You Are Not Welcome Among Us: Pirates and the State. International Journal Of Communication, 9, 19.
  3. Mckelvey, F. (2014). The History of the Pirate Bay through its Home Page, post for Culture Digitally blog.

Big Data and Logistical Media

  1. McKelvey, F., Tiessen, M., & Simcoe, L. (2015). A Consensual Hallucination No More? The Internet as Simulation Machine. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 18(4-5), 577–594. [paywalled]
  2. Mckelvey, F., Tiessen, M. & Simcoe, L. (2013). We are What we Tweet: The Problem with a Big Data World when Everything You Say is Data Mined, post for Culture Digitally blog.
  3. Langlois, G., McKelvey, F.;, Elmer, G, & Werbin, K. (2009). Mapping Commercial Web 2.0 Worlds: Towards a New Critical Ontogenesis. Fibreculture 14.

Internet Measurement and Digital Methods

  1. McKelvey, F. (2015). Openness Compromised? Questioning the Role of Openness in Digital Methods and Contemporary Critical Praxis. In G. Elmer, G. Langlois, & J. Redden (Eds.), Compromised Data: From Social Media to Big Data (pp. 126–146). New York, NY: Bloomsbury Academic.
  2. McKelvey, F. (2014). Algorithmic Media Need Democratic Methods: Why Publics Matter. Canadian Journal Of Communication, 39(4).
  3. McKelvey, F. (2011). Making Traffic Public: A Proposal for a Public Study of Internet Usage in Canada. In M. Moll & L. R. Shade (Eds.), The Internet Tree: The State of Telecom Policy in Canada 3.0 (pp. 143-152). Ottawa: Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

Internet Policy, Content Moderation and Network Neutrality

  1. McKelvey, F. (2021, June 9). Are Bill C-10’s efforts to regulate Canadian content at odds with net neutrality? Policy Options.
  2. McKelvey, F. (2021, July 13). Toward Contextualizing Not Just Containing Right-Wing Extremisms on Social Media: The Limits of Walled Strategies. SSRC Items.
  3. McKelvey, F. (2020, December 1). Online creators left on the outside of Broadcasting Act reforms. Policy Options.
  4. McKelvey, F. (2020, May 17). The value of connection: work-from-home reflections on World Telecommunication and Internet Society day. Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences Ideas Blog.
  5. McKelvey, F., Tworek, H., & Tenove, C. (2019, February 11). How a standards council could help curb harmful online content. Policy Options.
  6. Tenove, C., Tworek, H., & McKelvey, F. (2018, November 12). We can’t rely solely on Silicon Valley to tackle online hatred. Globe and Mail.
  7. Rajabiun, R., & McKelvey, F. (2018, March 12). Why Canadians oppose blacklisting “pirate” websites. Policy Options.
  8. McKelvey, F. (2010). Ends and ways: The algorithmic politics of network neutrality. Global Media Journal — Canadian Edition, 3(1). 51-73.
  9. Essay for DeepPacketInspection.ca titled Deep Packet Inspection and Control over Communication, published May 2010
  10. McKelvey, F. & O’Donnell, S. (2010), Out from the Edges: Multi-site Videoconferencing as a Public Sphere in First Nations. Journal of Community Informatics. 5(2)