Ryan M. Milner

Ryan M. Milner is an American media studies scholar and professor of communication at the College of Charleston. His research focuses on internet culture, digital media, online interaction, and the social and political role of participatory media.

Education and career Milner received a Ph.D. in communication from the University of Kansas. A revised book version was published by MIT Press in 2016 as The World Made Meme: Public Conversations and Participatory Media.

At the College of Charleston, Milner is professor and chair of the Department of Communication. His teaching includes courses on digital media, media ethics, and audio investigations. The book was also reviewed in journals including New Media & Society and Asiascape: Digital Asia.

With Whitney Phillips, Milner co-authored The Ambivalent Internet: Mischief, Oddity, and Antagonism Online, published by Polity in 2017. The book examines online expression that moves between play, humor, hostility, and political participation. It was reviewed in journals including Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Global Media and Communication, and Information, Communication & Society.

Phillips and Milner later co-authored You Are Here: A Field Guide for Navigating Polarized Speech, Conspiracy Theories, and Our Polluted Media Landscape, published by MIT Press in 2021. The book was reviewed in New Media & Society. In 2023, Phillips and Milner published the young-adult media-literacy book Share Better and Stress Less: A Guide to Thinking Ecologically about Social Media with MITeen Press.

Selected publications Books

Articles