Amelia Arsenault is an Assistant Professor of Communication at Georgia State University and serves as the Media and Democracy Research Fellow at the Center for Global Communication Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, Annenberg School. She is currently working on a book project that explores the nascent industry of digital “information warriors” who provide contract services to political actors seeking to influence the online media agenda. She also serves as the co-Managing Editor of the open access, peer reviewed journal Media Industries and as a research advisor to the US Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy in the Department of State. She teaches courses in new media, network theory, and communication and power.  Her scholarly work has appeared in the International Journal of Communication, International Sociology, The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, and Information, Communication, and Society. She is also co-editor (with Rhonda Zaharna and Ali Fischer) of The Connective Mindshift: Relational, Networked and Collaborative Approaches to Public Diplomacy.

In complement to her academic research Arsenault remains actively engaged with the community of practitioners and policy makers involved in strategic communications, public diplomacy, and media development activities around the world. In this capacity, she has authored several commissioned reports such as “State Department: Digital Media Evaluation In the International Information Programs Bureau (IIP/Analytics) And Public Affairs Bureau (PA/ODE),” part of the US Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy’s report to Congress, Data Driven Public Diplomacy: Progress Towards Measuring the Impact of Public Diplomacy and International Broadcasting Activities. Since 2010, she has also organized the annual Milton Wolf Seminar on Media Diplomacy in Vienna, Austria.

She holds a B.A. in Film and History from Dartmouth College, an MSc in Global Media and Communication from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and a PhD from the University of Southern California Annenberg School. Prior to her academic career, she spent several years as the film coordinator for the Zimbabwe International Film Festival Trust, a non-profit visual literacy organization in Harare, Zimbabwe.